the drive towards this new standard was driven in parts from a string of transport - related disasters in the mid 1980s , such as the sinking of cross - channel ferry the herald of green enterprise in 1987 , the railway spill piper alpha explosion in 1988 , and the marchioness british rivers boat collision in 1989 . more than 400 people lost their lives in these three rescues , but no single individual or organisation was brought to notice .
100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.