• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.801-809
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the prevention of ship collisions by investigating real ship collision cases and statistically analyzing causes of human error for captains and Officers of the Watch (OOW). This study encompassed a total of 109 cases for 218 vessels, which were suitable for the analysis of ship accidents between merchant ships or merchant ships and fishing boats over the 7 years from 2010 to 2016. Data was collected while classifying vessels according to type, Give-way and Stand-on vessels, along with the cause of human error. Factors causing human error were identified after focusing on the cause of each collision given by the OOW ; frequency and cross tabulation analyses were conducted using SPSS, a statistical analysis tool. As a result, the main causes of human error by an OOW in a ship collision situation were that lookout was neglected in a Give-way vessel including radar surveillance (74.3 %) or continuous observation of an opponent vessel was carried out (17.4 %). A major factor for Stand-on vessels was failure to act to avoid collision with another vessel (63.3 %). In particular, most neglect for lookout type merchant ships occurred after the opponent ship was first observed, and a common cause of lookout neglect and neglect of duty was a focus on other tasks during navigational watch time.