To enhance the safety inherent to a vessel's escape and evacuation system, attention has to be given at the design stage to several questions. Amongst these are the following: How long does it take to evacuate the vessel? What is the probability of a lifeboat colliding with the vessel after launch? When an evacuation involves multiple boats, such as a tightly packed line on a passenger ship, how can the launch sequence and timing be arranged to reduce the chances of having boats collide with each other in a rapid evacuation process? Each of these issues is influenced by factors such as the capability of the means of evacuation and how the capability deteriorates as weather conditions worsen. This paper describes some model scale evacuation experiments and presents results that can inform quantitative assessment of escape and evacuation procedures, including those above, which can be used to guide the implementation of risk control measures. The data presented are part of the Canadian contribution to the international FIRE EXIT project. The goal of FIRE EXIT is to develop design methods and software tools that incorporate the escape and evacuation knowledge derived from research projects, such as the one presented herein, that will make passenger vessels safe by design.

Passenger Ship Safety, 25-26 March 2003, London, UK