Study of the risk assessment quality dependence on the ships accidents analysis

Abstract

Safety is undoubtedly a qualitative basis for the efficient functioning of maritime transport. Particularly important is safety of shipping, freight and passenger transportation. The impetuous growth of ship quantity, increase of their movement along the sea ways as well as the factors of external environment influence underline the necessity to consider the problem of shipping safety as the most priority and actual one in the focus of consideration of the current state and tendencies of the shipping development. As the statistics shows, the main reason of marine accidents are breakdown, damages or failure of engines and equipment. They account for over a third of all recorded cases over the past ten years. The same reason has led in recent years to the most expensive insurance payments, amounting to impressive sums. This explains why risk assessment as a structured process of analysing the consequences and probabilities of dangerous situations is an effective tool for achieving safety goals. The aim of this research is to study the peculiarities of risk assessment process and compare the quality of execution of this process with the accident rate of the world trading fleet. The causes of accident consequences have been systematized, pointing to the fact that seafarers could have prevented most accidents if they had paid proper attention to conducting a risk assessment of the operation, especially the impact of certain elements of the human factor.