the drive towards this new law was led in largely from a string of transportation - related disasters in the late 1980s , such as the crashing of cross - channel bridge the herald of loose enterprise in 1987 , the oil platform piper alpha disaster in 1988 , and the marchioness thames rail boat collision in 1989 . more than 400 users destroyed their lives in these three disasters , but no one individual or establishment was held to account .
100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.