Letter: Safety on ferries

Sir: Support should be lent to Alan Shatter of Fine Gael in his call for a criminal investigation into events leading to the deaths of two children last Wednesday on the Celtic Pride (report, 15 August). This tragedy, especially poignant in the European Year of Safety and Health, cannot simply be left as the regrettable materialisation of what an official at the Irish Marine Department called a 'one-in-a-million chance'.

Alan Murdoch reports (14 August) there is evidence that the vessel operator had been made aware of the problem of sewage gas entering passenger cabins on several occasions. The peril posed by this type of gas cannot be regarded as an unknown or unforeseeable danger. Why did we have to wait for such a disaster to happen before the ship was quickly booked in for design alterations?

Historical developments since the Zeebrugge tragedy indicate that the safety of passengers and crew is not necessarily the paramount, decisive factor in questions of naval architectural design. Today, five years after the capsize of The Herald of Free Enterprise, nine out of ten 'roll-on, roll-off' ferries using UK ports do not fully conform with the original safety recommendations made after the disaster. The cost of refitting is not regarded by companies as urgent, despite the exhortations of some marine safety experts.

Clearly all sea travel entails some risk, but in counterpoising the safety advantages of some proposals with their cost, companies can sometimes make decisions which may prove to be legally classified as criminally reckless.

Yours faithfully,

GARY SLAPPER

Senior Lecturer in Law

Staffordshire University

Stoke-on-Trent