by Capt. Michalis Fragkias – Senior Marine Consultant, ex-DPA & HSQE Manager at Sun Enterprises Ltd
For years the shipping industry has focused on and relied on numerous regulations to ensure and improve safety at sea. This is achieved through five main pillars: SOLAS – MARPOL – STCW – ISM CODE – MLC 2006
Nevertheless, shipping still faces risks, major accidents and in many of them human lives are unfortunately lost. The abundance of regulations and the subsequent treatment of everything bad that happens have not made anyone safer onboard ships.
It is generally accepted that ships, despite the significant technological advances that have been made, still travel in a very hostile environment and under a heavy and demanding workload.
From the time of the Titanic until today, the root cause of catastrophic shipping accidents has been and still is human error. Error of the master, the crew or even the management of the particular company.
Despite the large package of regulations and procedures, corrective and preventive measures taken by the shipping industry and related training, human errors still occur and are responsible for almost 80% of shipping accidents.
In recent years the shipping industry has been dealing with the Human Factor or Human Capital, as it is preferable to call the great contribution of the navy to shipping. There is a need to see not only the human factor in general but mainly the man who lives and works on merchant ships, the seaman-factor!
The shipping industry recognizes that alongside the professional/technical skills (hard skills) required by STCW, we must focus more on human skills (soft skills). The aim of this supplementary training is to emphasize the need for interpersonal skills in the professional dimension and excellence. Additional training in human skills aims to improve the level of safety and further reduce accidents.
We believe that the time is right to realize that the human factor, working on or for the ship, is the key to preventing omissions and accidents from happening.
In the latest edition ISGOTT, for the first time, makes reference to the human factor. It states that the human factor is the characteristic that affects the interaction of processes, tools and persons. The next version TMSA 4, is expected to have a new ELEMENT 14. “The human element”. DryBMS, in the fourth section “PEOPLE”, deals with human performance. One of the main objectives of SIRE 2 is the professional competence of the crew of the ship under inspection!
But let’s see what we learned from the accidents we suffered in the last 110 years. Even after the implementation of the ISM Code in 1998, shipping had and still has a “re-active” approach in dealing with maritime accidents and disasters. This is the “SAFETY I” package. Based on the accident we take measures aimed at preventing it from happening again. (Titanic – SOLAS, Torrey Canyon – MARPOL, Amoco Cadiz – Emergency steering gear, Exxon Valdez – OPA 90, VRP, double hulls), Herald of Free Enterprises – ISM Code etc). In short, we put another slice in the “Swiss Cheese”, where each slice is a regulation, system or measure that we took after an incident!
The constantly updated list of serious accidents comes to underline the need to change the perception we have about safety and gradually move to SAFETY II, which focuses on prevention. To prevent accidents from happening. Based on what we have achieved so far, we aim not only to reduce accidents but, by promoting systematic management and safety culture, to eliminate them completely!
The shipping industry is run by people. People design the ships, build them, legislate them, manage them, man them and maintain them. But people are completely different from each other. In contrary, they all have something in common! People are never error-free and also, almost everyone has a tendency to circumvent, to a greater or lesser extent, regulations and safety measures.
Personal safety is a package of methods, tools, instructions and equipment that seafarers can and should adopt in order to avoid danger in the workplace. Regulations, codes and other related defense measures, although necessary, do not contribute to safety by themselves. Greater improvement will only be achieved if each employee puts their safety and that of others above anything else! To achieve this, the rules and all preventive measures must be strictly and meticulously applied, always and under any circumstances!
The findings are disappointing regarding the implementation of safety measures by crews on ships!. And a big why remains unanswered! Why do qualified, experienced and adequately trained seafarers not apply the existing safety measures?
Actions and decisions due to human factors and human error are usually the result of stressful working conditions, ineffective protective measures, poor quality supplies and a low level of safety culture held by management.
As mentioned above, it is widely accepted that most shipping accidents are caused by human error. If we examine it more deeply we will see that the normal expected human error is quite different if we compare it to the error made by the seaman.
The mistakes made by the seafarer, most of the time, are the result of stressful work factors and conditions that contribute to an accident. To compare ordinary human error with the error of the Master or other crew member we must understand and realize that:
“There is no other human professional activity in which 20-25 people are expected to strictly comply with a large volume of regulations and requirements, under extremely adverse conditions and for long periods of time, in a very dangerous environment.” (This can only be understood by anyone who has lived and worked on a merchant ship.)
Generally, man fails for reasons related to his culture, mental health, and fatigue. In recent years, there is a permanent trend showing that most accidents are due to non-technical causes such as insufficient professionalism, wrong decisions and dependency.
Seaman’s mistakes are omissions and unsafe actions or conditions where applicable regulations or existing company precautions are not followed. There are many deliberate omissions that can cause accidents!
In general, crews tend to misbehave during routine or emergency conditions. Despite significant technological advances and training provided to improve the professionalism of crews in order to reduce untoward incidents, seafarers tend not to comply with existing defense measures due to limited capabilities and human nature.
The challenges and risks that people face in shipping are numerous and have a significant impact on their mental and physical health. The demanding working conditions test the endurance, psychology and skills of the workers.
Isolation is one of the biggest problems for seafarers, as they spend long periods at sea away from family and friends. The lack of social interaction and removal from their familiar environment causes intense loneliness and often leads to depression and anxiety.
Shipping requires workers to cope with adverse weather conditions such as rough seas, storms and extreme temperatures. These conditions increase the risk levels and affect the safety of the ship and the crew.
Fatigue is perhaps the biggest risk for seafarers, as shifts are long and working hours often chaotic, disrupting the natural sleep cycle and affecting their health. Fatigue reduces their ability to make good decisions, increasing the risk of accidents.
It is unlikely that an incident will happen again in the same way or under the same prevailing conditions. So getting management and work practices, better than before, learning from what has been done, may not be effective enough. It is much better to adopt long-term actions, based on a proactive approach with relevant risk assessments and latent failures, hidden in the management system.
Latent failures of the existing safety system in general are omissions that can contribute to conditions that cause an accident. The chances of a system having weaknesses that could cause an accident can lurk for a long time. And when these weaknesses coexist with other generative causes, then an accident occurs.
In general, humans make mistakes and like to take risks. Especially seamen, under this very stressful work environment and the many jobs that have to be done every day, are forced to take more risks (Error enforcing conditions). More often than not, seamen deviate from safety procedures to get the job done faster. Taking risks on board ship, for whatever reason, is quite different from people taking risks in other activities on land.
Such behaviors are usually repetitive (Complacency – Routinization) and are unfortunately tolerated by ineffective supervision and leadership. The big problem is that some mistakes have such catastrophic consequences, including loss of life, that they must be foreseen and measures taken to prevent them from happening.
Several shipping companies implement BBS (Behavioral Based Safety) procedures in their safety management systems which aim to ensure that potentially dangerous actions and related errors are prevented rather than trying to take corrective and preventive measures after they have occurred!
The BBS is a tool intended to ensure full compliance with an organization’s existing program of safety measures and procedures, developed and implemented to control hazardous situations and incidents. When an unsafe action is detected it should not be allowed to continue.
Good shipping companies have realized that they need a well-qualified, well-trained and dedicated crew and their management system has been adapted accordingly, to be able to meet these requirements effectively. Additionally, they have systems and working conditions in place that help prevent mistakes and unsafe behaviors in the workplace. Without a good and efficient crew, it is impossible to meet the large number of demands of the shipping industry.
In order to achieve full implementation with the safety procedures, objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) of a well-structured management system, one is the magic word :“COMPLIANCE”. Strict compliance with the preventive and defensive measures established by the managing company, by all employees at all levels.
In the long term the goal should be, not only to reduce injuries, accidents and incidents on ships, but to eliminate them completely and most importantly, no more human lives are lost at sea!
