the motivation towards this new law was driven in part from a quartet of transport - caused deaths in the late 1980s , such as the sinking of cross - river tanker the herald of free enterprise in 1987 , the industrial platform danny alpha disaster in 1988 , and the marchioness thames river boat explosion in 1989 . more than 400 people lost their lives in these three disasters , but no one individual or organisation was brought to justice .
100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.