A new report was released last week that contains a summary and the probable cause of 21 marine accidents. The national Transportation Safety Board is hoping the report will be an eye opener.
The National Transportation Safety Board released “Safer Seas 2013: Lessons Learned from marine Accident investigations” last week. The report includes a compilation of accident investigations that were published in 2013, organized by vessel type with links to the more detailed accident reports.
Director of the office of Marine Safety at the NTSB Tracy Murrell says the information in the report come to the Board as the incidents happen but this is a consolidation.
“As we complete them we put them out and we post them on the web. But what we thought for Safer Seas 2013 was an even shorter version of these accident investigations in a compilation that can be used by either mariners on board vessels or by safety professionals in the maritime field as reminders of particularly accidents and incidents that have happened and the lessons that people have learned from those accidents.”
The incidents include fires, collisions and flooding. Murrell says the report runs the gambit of accidents seen.
“The interesting thing about it, I think, is that it does have so many different types of accidents that most likely most mariners can find something in there that relates to their type of operation or something they’ve been involved with. Transiting under bridges, making sure your position is correct and you’ve got the right height above your vessel to make the transit. So it really is the compilation of all sorts of various accidents that we see and reminders of the importance of all aspects of safety that you see when you’re operating vessels.”
Murrell says she hopes the report will change the “what could go wrong?” mentality to be a literal question on every mariner’s mind. The report gives detailed accounts of the 21 incidents. The document can be found at www.ntsb.gov.