Means of escape

Lack of secondary means of escape from cabins ought to be carefully considered

“Safety at Sea” PE 6th Oct included the observation that ‘there is all too frequently a lack of consideration of the end user’. Paying passengers are the end user in cruise ships and the lack of secondary means of escape from cabins ought to be carefully considered as a safety issue. Collision, fire, explosion or structural failure can distort the cabin door frame and cause the door to jam. 

My wife and I were in an outside cabin on a popular cruise ship. Our cabin door was a very tight fit in its frame and had to be pushed quite hard to open and close it. There was no other way of exiting the cabin. 

A possible simple remedy in the design would be the inclusion of break-through panels between cabins and/or manhole-size, kick-out panels in the cabin doors 

T Bryant, Cheshire