Safety in Greek coastal shipping: The role and risk of human factor revisited (original) (raw)

Accidents in Greek Coastal Shipping: Human Factor and Old Ships…or maybe Small Ships?

The comprehensive analysis presented in this paper investigates the links and comparative assets between human factor and other factors that are important determinants of maritime transport risk. In this outline, the identification of factors, such as age and ship size, that can be statistically linked (i.e. statistical significance) to whether an accident in a passenger vessel can be attributed to human factor or other causes is addressed accordingly. This way, the role of human factor in relation to safety of Greek coastal shipping is revealed and the spotlight is able to focus on the various aspects and points that manifest the importance of human element in the maritime industry. According to the knowledge of the authors of this paper, this is the first extensive hypothesis analysis that it implemented in the human element and its role within the shipping industry. The paper is concluded with interesting insights and comments drafted through the aforementioned tasks.

Research of marine accidents through the prism of human factors

Promet-traffic & Transportation, 2013

This paper focuses on the impact of human factors on marine accidents and their prediction developed by regression analysis. Despite the rapid technological development of ships and the presence of legislative framework for the control and safety at sea, this paper identifies the human factor as one of the weakest link in maritime safety system. First, the authors start from the literature review of human error existence in maritime transportation pointing out the psychological and organizational aspects. Then, regarding international maritime law the authors specify the regulations that consider the marine casualty statement. Descriptive statistics and review of number of ships and lives involved in accidents in the European Union (EU) waters present a starting point for applying the regression analysis to predict the number of accidents in the coming years. The obtained results indicate two directions. Firstly, the linear trend for the predicted number of accidents is mostly stabl...

An Analysis of Maritime Transportation Risk Factors

1998

This paper presents an analysis on the factors that are important determinants of maritime transportation risk. The analysis has been part of an international, multi-partner project. The purpose of the project has been to identify technologies and other measures to improve maritime safety, mainly in the context of European waters.

Analysis of maritime transportation risk factors

1998

This paper presents an analysis on the factors that are important determinants of maritime transportation risk. The analysis has been part of an international, multi-partner project. The purpose of the project has been to identify technologies and other measures to improve maritime safety, mainly in the context of European waters. 1.

Port Risk Assessment Methodology for Human Accidents in Container Terminals: Evidence from the Port of Piraeus – Greece

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORT ENGINEERING

World trade increasingly relies on longer, larger and more complex port systems, where maritime transportation is a vital backbone of such operations. Port systems are more prone to being risk oriented. Many specific methods have been found to assess risk and safety in a port area or operation. A review is presented of different approaches to quantify the risk in port area. On the other hand, there is no specific risk assessment method or framework to cope with threats and hazards as a whole. This conceptual paper presents a Port Risk Assessment (PRA) methodology, seeking to transfer the Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) framework as applied to ships into the domain of ports. The PRA is structured to include all steps from risk identification and assessment to risk control cost/benefit assessment and recommendation, and is capable of modelling all probable port risks on human lives, property and the environment. The applicability of the PRA is demonstrated for human accidents with reference to the container terminal of the Port of Piraeus, in Greece.

Statistical Analysis of Accidents and Review of Safety Level of Passenger Ships

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

This paper deals with a statistical analysis of maritime accidents pertaining to passenger ships in worldwide operation and, ultimately, with the assessment of the current safety level of the particular ship type, assuming that the safety level may be defined as a societally acceptable level of risk. The basic risk contributors, namely the frequency of main accidents’ occurrence and related consequences, are herein quantified and assessed. The presented analysis, covering the last two decades (2000–2021), shows that there has been a considerable reduction in the frequency of serious accidents’ occurrence in the last decade, whereas associated consequences do not exhibit the same trend since the frequency of ship total losses and of fatalities has increased. However, fatality rates are, to a great extent, affected by accidents of ships not compliant with safety regulations. This study also confirmed that grounding and contact accidents dominate the statistics of passenger ships of al...

Marine Accidents Researched Through Human Factor Prisma

Promet Traffic Transportation, 2013

This paper focuses on the impact of human factors on marine accidents and their prediction developed by regression analysis. Despite the rapid technological development of ships and the presence of legislative framework for the control and safety at sea, this paper identifies the human factor as one of the weakest link in maritime safety system. First, we start from the literature review of human error existence in maritime transportation pointing out the psychological and organizational aspects. Then, regarding international maritime law we specify the regulations that consider the marine casualty statement. Descriptive statistics and review of number of ships and lives involved in accidents in the European Union (EU) waters present a starting point for applying the regression analysis to predict the number of accidents in the coming years. The obtained results indicate two directions. Firstly, the linear trend for the predicted number of accidents is mostly stable, while secondly, we state that this trend would not be stable in the case of number of lives lost because of the level of reliability which clearly indicates that the latter must be investigated by other different approaches in the future.

Studying the marine accidents of the Aegean Sea: critical review, analysis and results

Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology

This paper aims at discovering characteristics, aspects and statistical patterns of recorded maritime accidents within specific zones of the Aegean Sea. A focused database with 10 years' accidents data has been studied on the special characteristics of the ships that had been involved. Based on this database, the paper presents results derived by statistical analysis that are able to provide valuable information about the accidents under examination in terms of type, size and other parameters of the involved ships. Two models are developed and implemented to establish a risk perspective view of maritime transport within the Aegean Sea; a stochastic Poisson function is used to determine the probability of accident occurrence for each one of the three sea zones of study. Next, a fault-like approach is explored as the basis for an alternative way of studying marine safety; in this context, a seismic-driven model is applied for the calculation of the probability of accident occurrence. To do so, the concept of energy release is used so as to develop a novel modelling approach for maritime accidents. Both models present in a systematic way the hazardous profile of maritime transport in the Aegean. The paper concludes with valuable insights.

Risk assessment in maritime transportation

Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 2001

A review is presented of different approaches to quantify the risk in maritime transportation. The discussion of several accident statistics provides a global assessment of the risk levels and its differentiation in ship types and main types of ship losses. Early studies in the probability of ship loss by foundering and capsizing are reviewed. The approaches used to assess the risk of structural design are addressed. Finally a brief account is given of recent development of using formal safety assessments to support decision making on legislation applicable internationally to maritime transportation. q

Statistical analysis of ship accidents and review of safety level

Safety may be defined as an acceptable state of risk by society. In this respect, for assessing the current safety level of ships, it is necessary to quantify the risk level of the operating world fleet, thus estimate and assess the basic contributors to risk, namely the frequency of maritime accidents and the extent of their consequences. The present investigation was motivated by earlier published work of Det Norske Veritas (DNV, 2006), in which they were some alarming signals of worsening of the level of maritime safety. A justified question therefore is whether and how the level of ship safety changed thereafter. Recalling that a fundamental step of a Formal Safety Assessment of maritime assets is the investigation of relevant casualty reports and the analysis of historical data, which characterise the maritime safety performance in the studied period, the herein presented work deals with a systematic analysis of ship accidents in the last decade as a way to evaluate the current level of safety for the majority of ship sub-types present in the world merchant fleet and to conclude on the foreseeable future. The presented analysis also includes a deeper investigation about possible relationships between accident rates and ship's age, which proved more complex than initially thought. The outcome of the present study indicates that in the last decade although the frequencies of ship accidents generally increased, the safety level of various ship types did not significantly change, as the consequences of accidents remained in average at about the same level.