The U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) issued its second edition of Safety Digest for 2020, presenting the lessons learned from a variety of marine accidents, highlighting the key factors that cause an accident.
Presenting the new Safety Digest, Andrew Moll Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents said that 2020 has been a challenging year. Namely, some sectors of the marine industry have been very hard hit by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It therefore pains me to say that overall this year there seems to be very little change in the overall rate at which accidents and incidents are occurring. The need to improve safety is therefore very much with us, and I hope the articles in this digest provide you with the inspiration to review at least some aspects of your operation to see how safety can be improved. We can all learn from others’ misfortunes
Mr. Moll also highlighted the need to understand the mind-set of the people doing the job before improving their performance, and shares his frustration that investigators so often see similar issues repeated time and time again in tragic accidents.
What is more, Mr. Moll talks about people’s resistance to or, conversely, willingness to change their approach. As he explains:
After a serious accident has occurred we often find that organisations can be conficted about what to do next. On the one hand, they do not want a re-occurrence; on the other hand, they worry that change could be seen as an admission of guilt or liability
To address this issue, Mr. Moll suggests two approaches:
- Learn from others’ misfortunes before you have an accident yourself;
- Consider that what went before was not necessarily ‘wrong’, but it could be ‘more right’. Seeing change in this light can help make it a positive activity.
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