Ferries must not be left behind in safety push

In May, IMO issued a circular on recommended passenger ship safety measures following the 90th session of its Maritime Safety Committee. Prompted by the Costa Concordia incident, the emphasis of the review was on cruise ships. But are ferries in danger of being overlooked with regards to safety guidelines? For instance one of the five main recommendations was for mustering to take place prior to departure at every port of embarkation. But this only applies to ships with voyages of over 24 hours.

Len Roueche, chief executive officer of Interferry, commented, “The vast majority of ferries do not operate routes of over 24 hours but in my view this is an arbitrary dividing line. There are plenty of overnight ferry services with passengers sleeping on board. The voyage duration might be half as long but that does not reduce the need for timely and effective emergency briefings. It’s definitely something that the ferry sector also needs to think about.”

Mr Roueche believes that a muster drill would be too elaborate and time consuming for a ferry operation but suggests a more extensive safety briefing with demonstrations of how to put on a lifejacket, for instance.

“Evacuation should be the last resort,” according to Daria Cabai, consultant naval architect at Braemar Seascope. “If evacuation is required, on large passenger ships it is very likely there will be casualties.”

Meanwhile, fatal ferry accidents are still occurring with alarming regularity in developing countries, two recent examples being the ex-Washington State Ferries’ Skagit, operated by Seagul Transport, capsizing off Tanzania and Mya Min Aung, an Irrawaddy River ferry sinking in Burma, both in July.

Mr Roueche said that reporting of accidents is still sketchy. “Right now we still rely on the media, which is usually just a one day story. It would be useful if a national administration could simply give the basic details of the incident without jeopardising the accident investigation.” The latest update from IMO and Interferry’s safety project to prevent these types of accidents is that there will be another regional safety forum, this time in Fiji in October.

The previous forum in Bali last December produced a positive action plan, but the results have not been monitored in detail since then. “I have been disappointed with the lack of follow through,” said Mr Roueche. “In doing the action plan we forgot to agree on how progress would be tracked and reported. So Interferry has now volunteered to contact the delegates from the Bali forum and we have made available to them the training programme we, IMO and Videotel developed for Bangladesh.”

The idea of these forums is inspiring other regions, however. The African group of IMO’s technical co-operation division wants to organise a ferry safety forum in Africa for 2013 and has asked for Interferry’s assistance. If these initiatives can spread to all the regions that need them, as long as progress is monitored, we will hopefully see more best-practice operations in all geographical areas. PST