Statistical analysis of ship accidents and review of safety level

What is it about?

The history of maritime transport is marked by ship accidents of partly disastrous impact on society and the marine environment. In response to this, more and more new requirements and amendments of existing regulations for the safe maritime transport were introduced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), especially after year 1990 marked by the disastrous Exxon Valdez marine pollution accident in Alaska. Moreover, in year 2000, IMO introduced a formalised procedure for the assessment of ship’s safety, known from other safety critical industry systems, namely the Formal Safety Assessment process (FSA); this enables rational decisions by a use of a structured process, which is based on risk analysis. A fundamental preparatory step of a FSA is the investigation of relevant casualty reports and the analysis of historical data, which characterise the past maritime safety performance, determine present trends and support predictions into the foreseeable future. The presented work deals with a systematic analysis of ship accidents in recent years as a way to evaluate the current level of safety for the majority of basic ship subtypes present in the world merchant fleet, namely, General Cargo ships, Bulk Carriers, Fishing vessels, Reefer ships, Ro-Ro cargo ships, Car Carriers, LNG and LPG carriers, Passenger and Cruise ships, Passenger Ro-Ro cargo vessels, Large Tankers and Containerships. The particular investigation was triggered and should be considered as an update of similar research work, which made public a decade ago by Det Norske Veritas (DNV 2006) and leads to important conclusions for the safety level of various types of ships in most recent years. Even more, we herein proceeded to a deeper investigation of a possible relationships between accident rates and ship’s age, which proved not straightforward, but more complex than initially thought.

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Why is it important?

The particular investigation was triggered and should be considered as an update of similar research work, which made public a decade ago by Det Norske Veritas (DNV 2006) and leads to important conclusions for the safety level of various types of ships in most recent years. Even more, we herein proceeded to a deeper investigation of a possible relationships between accident rates and ship’s age, which proved not straightforward, but more complex than initially thought.

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