Coast Guard

The Coast Guard continues to discover safety problems aboard cruise ships, including inoperable fire doors and improperly designed escape routes. A common problem is substandard inspections by classification societies and the foreign countries in which cruise ships are registered. In addition, interpretations differ on some key international safety standards. Although the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has begun work on needed reforms, the Coast Guard has not adequately assessed information, nor shared it with IMO, on the extent of lax safety oversight by foreign countries and classification societies. The Coast Guard could improve its own examination program by (1) better collecting and analyzing results of its cruise ship examinations--the current system does not routinely track repeated deficiencies by individual companies, nations, or classification societies--and (2) providing its inspectors with more training on international safety standards. International standards contain limited training requirements for crew members responsible for fighting shipboard fires. Further, international standards for emergency information aboard cruise ships are limited and unclear. Emergency information to help passengers safely evacuate ships is often confusing and incomplete.

GAO found that: (1) international safety standards did not adequately address shipboard safety problems including inoperable fire doors, improperly designed escape routes, and inadequate escape drills; (2) reasons for safety problems included inadequate inspections and varying safety standard interpretations; (3) the Coast Guard could not effectively use its safety examination program due to recording and analytical deficiencies in examinations and a lack of formal international safety standard training for inspectors; (4) some cruise ship personnel were not proficient in responding to shipboard fires because of inadequate international training standards, outdated training information, and the lack of shipboard instruction and drills for fire fighting crews; (5) cruise ship emergency information lacked clear emergency symbols and cabin information to sufficiently assist passengers; and (6) although the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has proposed improvements to shipboard emergency information, many problems persist.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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