Industry response in the aftermath of the sinking of Costa Concordia has been marked by an increased emphasis on the need for a fresh re-evaluation on safety rules set in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention.
This has been confirmed by Koji Sekimizu, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organisation, who held that the Organisation will not be taking this accident lightly and after the casualty investigations are carried out, will re-examine the regulations on the safety of large ships.
The IMO is the United Nations Agency that monitors the safety standards set in the SOLAS convention which, since being established in 1914 in response to the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912, has been continually revised to ensure the safety of the passengers and the ship itself.
Incidentally, the grounding of Costa Concordia comes less than 20 months after amendments to the SOLAS convention aimed at improving international passenger ship safety regulations. Amongst the amendments, changes to procedures relating to evacuation procedures and lifeboat boarding have been introduced. The new rules oblige ships engaged to carry passengers on board for more than 24 hours, to conduct musters of the passengers within 24 hours of their embarkation. Furthermore, survival craft that is used by passengers during abandonment must be capable of being fully launched within a period of 30 minutes from the time the abandon-ship signal is given.
In accordance with the SOLAS Convention, Italy, as the Flag State, must carry out a casualty investigation that covers all aspects of the incident and subsequently provide all aspects of this incident.
