Gard: How vessel behaviour affects accident risk

According to Gard, several of the risk factors can be influenced. Fewer accelerations, steady speed, increased vigilance, and better preparations before entering a new port have the potential to significantly reduce the risk of something going wrong. The following are some of the high-risk behaviours which we found to correlate with groundings:

• Speed: The higher the speed relative to the vessel’s service speed, the higher the likelihood of a grounding.
• Proportion of time in median speed: In essence, the fewer speed fluctuations, the lower the risk of grounding. A steady speed during the voyage tends to reduce the risk of grounding.
• River traffic: As indicated above, the more time a vessel spends in rivers, the more likely it is to have an incident.
• Number of port calls: the higher number of port calls, the higher the risk of grounding. This goes for all ports, not just the hot spots.
• Number of unique port calls: The higher the number of different ports visited, the higher the likelihood of a claim. The risk increases when calling at a port not previously visited or not frequently visited by the vessel and this can be attributed to the lack of familiarity that the bridge team would experience during a port visit.

Key risk factors for collisions:

• Calls to large ports: The higher the traffic in a port, the higher the risk. This factor is mostly important for third-party liability.
• Time anchored: The longer a vessel stays at anchor, the higher the risk of a collision, as many vessels are anchored around busy traffic lanes.
• Mileage: The higher the total nautical miles travelled by a vessel throughout a year, the lower the risk of collision. In other words: the more time at sea, the less the likelihood of an incident.
• Speed: Just as for groundings, the higher the speed, the higher the likelihood of a collision. For collisions, the service speed and most common (typical) speed are more useful factors than the max speed.