Incident Hot Spots - From Guard P&I

 

This is from Guard P&I:

Incident hot spots - a global overview of navigation incidents

This is from the report:

• Investigating navigation incidents: The majority of investigations into navigation incidents indicate “human error” as the root cause of the incident. It is seldom that an investigator tries to reconstruct the incident to fully understand the circumstances of the incident. What if all actions performed to avoid the incident were in compliance with the duties of the bridge team? What if the bridge team had performed similar manoeuvres successfully in the past to avoid the incident? Our investigation methods could very well be as static as our approach to navigation audits and therefore do not consider the dynamic nature of navigating a vessel through ever changing risks. As an example, when a vessel is on a tight port rotation, we recommend our members and clients consider the heightened risks of a navigation incident and advise their bridge team accordingly. Similarly, we recommend expectations to the master are managed when the vessel is likely to call a congested port or for that matter unique port where the vessel may not have called in the past. For those on shore making commercial decisions, it is important to factor in safety of navigation in the decision process.

An arrival or departure at a familiar port is generally easier than calling to a port for the first time. This fact is not appreciated shore-side

Another important factor not fully appreciated is the impact of a schedule change. A busy ship can not plan and execute voyage at the same time. On a high-tempo coastwise run a last minute schedule change can add significantly to the risk.