PARIS: Three collisions in as many weeks, all involving the same Norwegian cargo ship Tricolor, have highlighted the dangers of navigating the Strait of Dover, one of the most overcrowded shipping lanes in the world.

Forming a bottleneck in the English Channel between Calais, France and Dover, England, the strait saw more than 10 collisions in 2002.

Among the most spectacular was the sinking of the Tricolor, a car transporter with 30 million euros’ worth of BMW, Volvo and Saab cars on board, on Dec 14.

Just two days later the Dutch Antilles-registered cargo ship Nicola struck the wreck, lying on its side in shallow waters off the northern French port of Dunkirk.

Despite safety measures stepped up in the wake of the first collision — illuminated buoys, surveillance vessels and half-hourly radio alerts — the Turkish-registered tanker Vicky completed the unfortunate hat-trick on Wednesday, ploughing into the partly submerged car transporter despite warnings from a French patrol boat in the area.

These latest Channel mishaps could have been much worse — the vast majority of the Vicky’s 70,000-ton diesel cargo so far remains safely contained on board — but they have nonetheless focused the minds of coastguard and transport ministry officials in France, Belgium and Britain.

Up to 600 vessels pass through the Strait of Dover every day, ranking it above even the Strait of Singapore separating Indonesia and the city state as the world’s busiest route for captains.

Cargo ships, tankers and fishing boats moving between the North Sea and Atlantic regularly cross paths with smaller passenger ferries shuttling between British, French and Belgian ports. This is every bit as dangerous as it sounds — as the statistics show.

The Strait of Dover suffered 26 major tanker accidents between 1951 and 1998, compared with 21 for the Singapore Strait, 16 for the Strait of Malacca, nine for Turkey’s Bosphorus and eight each for the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal.

This despite the introduction of a regimented lane system in the Channel during the 1970s, which led to its being dubbed the “maritime motorway”.

Many are wondering how players in the shipping industry can be made more accountable for accidents and safety breaches.

But in an industry where the nationality of the ship owner, operator and crew is often deliberately chosen to put it beyond the reach of laws and conventions on safety and working conditions, such a task is not going to be easy.—AFP