Questionnaire Survey for Adapting Common Performance Conditions to Marine Accidents

An officer of the watch (OOW) is a qualified person with the knowledge and capabilities required to safely navigate a ship. However, many collisions occur that are caused by human errors in navigation. Eighty-four percent of collision accidents are caused by inadequate lookout. It is estimated that such accidents can be prevented if the OOW performs fully to his or her knowledge and capabilities. Many factors can reduce the OOW´s reliability, so it can be difficult to specify the cause of an accident. If the cause of an accident can be specified, efficient measures can be taken. This study utilizes a human reliability analysis method to analyze marine accidents. The cognitive reliability and error analysis method (CREAM) divides background factors into nine common performance conditions (CPCs). However, the manner in which CREAM is used in the nuclear industry is not applicable to the maritime domain since the working conditions are very different. To facilitate using CREAM to analyze marine accidents, we sought advice from specialists about redefining the CPCs and their descriptions. We then adapted the dependencies between the CPCs to marine accidents based on a questionnaire survey administered to OOWs. This paper reports the results of the questionnaire survey. In addition, we discuss the dependencies between the CPCs adapted for marine accident analysis. These results confirm the essence and character of the maritime industry.