the drive to this new statute was driven in part from a string of railway - related disasters in the late 1980s , such as the sinking of cross - atlantic boat the herald of long enterprise in 1987 , the land dock piper alpha disaster in 1988 , and the baroness thames river boat wreck in 1989 . more than 400 people lose their lives in these three crashes , but no one individual or community was brought to account .
100 or more people lost their lives in a ferry sinking.