MAIB 2014 Report - No Crew Deaths on UK Vessels - An excellent achievement

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) U.K. established in 1989 following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster, is an independent unit within the Department for Transport in U.K. The MAIB investigates marine accidents involving UK vessels worldwide and all vessels in UK territorial waters. Their job is to help prevent further avoidable accidents from occurring and not to establish blame or liability.

Empowered by the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, it is a government agency headed by the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents. The MAIB is the marine equivalent of the much older Air Accidents Investigation Branch and the more recent Rail Accident Investigation Branch, all of them report directly to the Secretary of State for Transport.

Investigations are thorough but are strictly limited to establishing cause, promoting awareness of risks and preventing recurrence. Reporting of accidents to the MAIB is mandatory for all commercially operated vessels in UK waters and for all UK registered vessels worldwide. The MAIB receives between 1000 and 2000 incident reports annually of which 30 to 50 become full investigations with published reports. The choice of which accidents are investigated is made on the basis of the scope of the safety lessons which may be learned as a result of the investigation. The reports do not apportion blame and do not establish liability.

In 2014 the Marine Accident Investigation Branch received 1270 reports of accidents of all types and severity which led to 31 separate investigations being launched.

Recently, MAIB has published their annual report for 2014. The highlights of the report are given below:

• For the fifth year in succession no UK merchant vessel of > 100gt was lost;

• The overall accident rate for UK merchant vessels > 100gt was unchanged from 2013 at 88 per 1000 vessels;

• There were no crew deaths on UK merchant vessels >100gt in 2014 and a review of available records from the last 50 years shows that this has never happened before;

• The average number of deaths over the last 10 years is 4 per year

Several maritime countries, including India, have a marine accident investigation branch either as an independent unit or within their maritime administration and carry out marine accident investigations in a similar way.

Major IMO Conventions (SOLAS, MARPOL, LOAD LINES, STCW, etc.), ISM Code/Safety Management System, National and Classification requirements aim towards minimizing loss of life, personal injury, loss and damage to property (ship and cargo), accidents, pollution incidents and hazardous occurrences, and thereby build-up a good safety culture throughout the world fleet. The shipping industry is continually striving for achieving zero accidents and in spite of good efforts, this may not be possible as something, sometimes does tend go wrong.

The MAIB (UK) 2014 report states that there were no crew deaths on UK merchant vessels > 100gt, and that this has never happened before for the last 50 years. This indeed is laudable. Further, that for the fifth year in succession no UK merchant vessels of > 100gt were lost, is also a very good record. 

The afore-said highlights of the MAIB (UK) 2014 report is good encouragement for the rest of the world’s shipping industry to strive even harder towards the goal of zero accidents.