Accident-causing Theories And Their Applications In The Control Of Maritime Safety

In order to probe the process of water traffic accident, investigation its causation which will help for the safeguard against risks, and to improve water traffic safety management, this paper analyses and compares varies of accident-causing theories, then on the basis of them, produced water traffic accident-causing theory, and gave a clear explanation of each of its factors. The theory is certified by causation analyzing to two real accidents.In the following, the paper discussed the application of water traffic accident-causing theory in SOLAS Convention and in water traffic safety management in our country.Typical accident-causing' theories includes Heinrich' s Domino' s theory, its development by Bird, Adams and other people, progress of which is that it is deficiencies of management system that are the root cause in accident causation sequence. This is author' s idea resource and main method to produce the water traffic accident-causing theory . in addition, uncontrolled transferring of energy theory, applies widely in safety management scheme for water traffic; human error accident model can be used to analyze causes of collision accident and to take preventive measures; perturbation theory and multilinear event sequencing method is a very useful investigation method to water traffic accidents. All of these theories have contributed to the development of water traffic accident-causing theory. As to orbit intersecting theory, the paper thinks it extension of Domino' s theory, although it exists independently.Among all above accident-causing theories, there is a common point of view, i. e. unsafe behavior of human and /or unsafe condition of object is the direct cause of a accident. The paper centered the point of view, going forward to find out the management system factor, while going afterward to identify emergency actions, so a integrated water traffic accident-causing theory comes forward. It says deficiencies of management system, including (but not limited) company management system for safe operations and maritime safety administration system, is the root cause of accident causation. It causes crew' s quality deficiencies, unfitness of cargo, and dangerous navigation circumstances, which further more cause unsafe behavior of crew members, unsafe condition of ship and cargo onboard, and/or high risks of circumstances, that lead to undesired event (s). Those may or may not result in initial loss, depending on circumstances. The final loss then depends on the emergency remedial actions that are taken, or not.The water traffic accident-causing theory can be used to improve and perfect marine accident investigation. The theory has quite a better application in SOLAS Convention gradually. Water traffic administration measures in our country apply with the theory on the whole. But some factor, such as maritime administration system, fitness of cargo, maritime safety information and emergency preparedness, are controlled incompletely and unconcretely.