the drive on this old law was driven in half from a string of transport - related catastrophe in the latter 1980s , such as the sinking of inter - river ferry the pageant of free trade in 1987 , the oil platform piper alpha wreck in 1988 , and the suo bridge river boating explosion in 1989 . more than 400 people lost their homes in these three disasters , but no 1 man or organisation was created to account .
100 or more person lost their arms in a yacht sinking .