During IMO Sub-Committee on Ship Design and Construction , 16-20 February 2015
IMO Sub-Committee held its 2nd Session from Monday 16 through Friday 20 February 2015, where expansion of mandatory passenger evacuation analysis to all passenger ships agreed among other issues.
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Taking into account the recommendations from the investigation into theCosta Concordiaincident, the Sub-Committee agreeddraft amendments to SOLAS regulation II-2/13 – Means of escape to extend the requirements for evacuation analysis to all passenger ships, not just ro-ro passenger ships. The amendments would require escape routes to be evaluated by an evacuation analysis early in the design process, applicable to ro-ro passenger ships other passenger ships carrying more than 36 passengers. The analysis would be used to identify and eliminate, as far as practicable, congestion which may develop during an abandonment, due to normal movement of passengers and crew along escape routes, including the possibility that crew may need to move along these routes in a direction opposite to the movement of passengers. |
In addition, the analysis would be used to demonstrate that escape arrangements are sufficiently flexible to provide for the possibility that certain escape routes, assembly stations, embarkation stations or survival craft may not be available as a result of a casualty.
The draft amendments to SOLAS regulation II-2/13 will be submitted to MSC 95 for approval and subsequent adoption.
In order to further develop guidelines relating to evacuation analysis, the Sub-Committee established an evacuation analysis correspondence group to prepare draft amendments to the current Guidelines for evacuation analysis for new and existing passenger ships (MSC.1/Circ.1238), in order to address mandatory application of evacuation analysis to passenger ships including a review of the defined scenarios; to consider including in the Guidelines the need for operational procedures that support evacuation, as well as considering the results of the evacuation analysis to identify operational requirements during an evacuation; to discuss and if deemed necessary prepare specific requirements for evacuation of open deck areas; and to identify and consider additional evacuation scenarios together with the necessary requirements to be included in the draft amendments.
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Source:IMO
