the drive behind this draft standard was inspired in part from a string of vehicle - related disasters in the late 1980s , such as the loss of cross - river vessel the herald of free enterprise in 1987 , the coal platform hawker alpha incident in 1988 , and the marchioness thames river barge collision in 1989 . more than 400 individuals lost their lived in these three disasters , but no one individual or organisation was sent to account .
100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.