Safely at Sea : Our role in creating safety

Abstract

It is generally acknowledged that the underlying reasons for incidents, hazardous occurrences and accidents include “weak spots in safety culture” or “a human factor”. What does that mean? What is it that did not work in practice? This guide makes the often very abstract terms of “human factors” and “safety culture” more familiar and easier to understand. In general usage, the term “human factors” is usually given a negative connotation. This guide brings a new angle to terms and introduces a new way to use them: Where did we succeed? Why? What could have gone better? What creates safety? In essence, safety is people’s successful actions.Together, acting as one system, we can anticipate incidents and accidents or mitigate the consequences of incidents that have already occurred. Disturbances and risks remain less serious, they occur less frequently and we understand why and how they occur. The purpose of the guide is to encourage seafarers and maritime operators to develop safety together. The guide features findings, lessons learnt and insights yielded by the “Assessing and developing maritime safety culture – better safety through managing human factors” (SeaSafety) project. The guide also includes the safety development tools and models that were used and developed further at the SeaSafety project workshops.