It was Europe's deadliest peacetime disaster of the century, but it was not an isolated accident. More than 900 people perished last week when the ferry Estonia rolled over and sank in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Finland during a storm-tossed voyage from Tallinn to Stockholm. The tragedy pushed to more than 8,000 the number of people who have died in ferry accidents around the world over the past 10 years, focusing international attention on a long-neglected and surprisingly dangerous mode of transport.
The ferry sank, said the head of Sweden's maritime safety division, because a wall of water ripped open the bow door, flooding the cargo deck and destabilizing the ferry. After it sank, he said, shipping companies disclosed earlier incidents in which bow doors had come loose or had not closed properly -- safety problems that Swedish and Finnish ferry lines had reportedly covered up. Some experts predict that "roll-on, roll- off" ferries like the Estonia, with open vehicle decks and without watertight bulkheads, will have to be redesigned to enhance their stability.
Ironically, a day after the sinking, London's National Maritime Museum opened an exhibit of artifacts from the Titanic, which, said one historian, was "substantially safer" than the Estonia. "It's as if we haven't learned anything in 82 years."
