Dangerous Lifeboats - a race to oblivion

Article in Seaways (August 2006) by Capt Dennis Barber FNI

Possibly because he was sickened by the ongoing waste of seafarers’ lives in accident after accident associated with lifeboats, Rear Admiral John Lang FNI, when he was still Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents at the MAIB, made what was taken by many to be an outrageous suggestion.
He questioned the wisdom of continuing to launch lifeboats for exercise purposes.

Several years on, the accidents keep coming. IMO deliberates and tinkers with the requirements of Solas and now fewer seafarers are exposed to such possible accidental mishaps when exercising lifeboats. The lifeboats, however, are still required to be lowered into the water with crew aboard. The boats and their launching apparatus remain unchanged.
Presumably the theory behind the current thinking is to reduce the casualties by  reducing the numbers exposed to danger. In the strictest mathematical sense this could be called risk mitigation. Moves to eliminate the real causes however appear limited.

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Dangerous lifeboats a race to oblivion