Cruise industry unveils new safety policies

CLIA and the European Cruise Council (ECC) released details of three new safety policies that have been adopted and which will be immediately implemented. The announcement was made by Manfredi Lefebvre, chairman of the ECC and member of CLIA’s executive committee, during a presentation at a major European Commission-organized Passenger Ship Safety event in Brussels. Lefebvre outlined how these policies have been agreed to by the industry and that they represent the third such announcement arising from the cruise industry’s Operational Safety Review. The three new policies address issues related to passage planning, personnel access to the bridge and lifejackets. Each of these three policies will be reported to the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO) for consideration at their next session in May. Christine Duffy, president and CEO of CLIA, commented: “As highlighted by these wide-ranging policies, we continue to take proactive measures to improve the safety of passengers and crew across the globe. We look forward to working collaboratively to identify any additional operational issues that will achieve our longstanding goal of of continuous improvement and innovation in shipboard operations and safety.” Lefebvre said: “The cruise industry is highly regulated and it is this regulatory regime, complied with onboard by our professional and committed officers and crews, that has given the cruise industry a truly remarkable safety record. But as the Concordia incident demonstrates, there is no such thing as perfect safety. We do strive for a perfect commitment to safety. And as part of our commitment to a safety culture, the industry — both individually as cruise lines and collectively through CLIA and the ECC — beginning January 27 launched an Operational Safety Review to learn the lessons from Concordia and to conduct a top to bottom safety review.” He continued: “By bringing forward voluntary initiatives such as these, we significantly and immediately improve safety standards. These initiatives are, we believe, fully supportive of the Commission’s goal of re-launching their Quality Shipping Campaign through voluntary partnership agreements with the shipping industry as set out in its Maritime Policy 2009-2018. Specifically, we very much hope that the results of the Operational Safety Review as they are delivered over the coming months will give us fertile ground to grow our partnership with the Commission.” Go to http://www.cruising.org for more.