Ferry safety is a constant journey, not a destination

Hamburg

GLOBALLY, ferries carry 2.2 billion passengers, 258 million cars and 40 million trailers a year. The worldwide ferry industry was recently described as "indispensable and essentially safe" by Jeff Lantz, the US Coastguard director responsible for safety and environmental regulations and chairman of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Council.

So far so good but, bearing in mind this century is still young, what he then told the 340 delegates at the 39th annual Interferry conference in Vancouver came as a shock.