Two Years of Routing in the Dover Strait

Extract

On 1 June 1967 routing was established in the Dover Strait. In the two years since then much experience has been gained and some of this has been reported already. The most significant fact to emerge so far is the sharp reduction in the number of accidents especially in relation to the amount of fog.

In the years 1961–7 before routing there was an average 14·3 collisions per annum, the lowest years being 1962 and 1965 with only 12 and the worst being 1961 with 23. In the first year since routing between 1 June 1967 and 31 May 1968 there were only 5 collisions, an all time low, and in the second year between 1 June 1968 and 31 May 1969 13 collisions with two after the 31 May 1969. Since most accidents in this area, but not as a whole, occur in fog it has long been established that a good measure of the safety record here is to examine the collisions per fog day. To do this in the Dover Strait, the amount of fog reported at the South Goodwin and Varne light vessels has been established from Trinity House and averaged to give an index for the Strait.