The learning objectives for this chapter
is to draw the ship's officers attention
to the importance of implementing
quality control in the operation of the
ship good safety management should be
the starting point for all commercial
operations involving third parties it is
not possible to have a good quality
ships management that is not safe
explaining safety is not easy a safety
is a word that everybody understands but
which is difficult to define some
seafarers from developing countries do
not have the same safety culture as the
semen from more developed ones safety is
a relative concept deriving its meaning
from a broad understanding of events
from which you may be possible to say
that warm activity is safer or less safe
than another activity looking at safety
this way means that activity should be
planned and any possible risk assessed
and reduced to a minimum
it leads to the idea that accidents
should be avoided some accidents cannot
be predicted but an accurate risk
assessment reduces this to a minimum in
practice humans make mistakes and
equipment particularly at sea can fail
under these circumstances the aim is to
anticipate what might cause an accident
and ensure that risks can be avoided
before they become critical in reality
it is not possible to have complete
safety but highly competent staff and
good risk assessment planning should
make it unlikely
shipping like many other international
industries has a long tradition of
accepting incidents and accidents in the
past decades this attitude has changed
to reflect the growing concern for human
life marine life and protection of the
environment
in order to understand the evolution of
the safety concepts in shipping and the
present situation lessons from the past
must be learned
previous accidents incidents and
near-misses are an excellent source of
reference and can provide valuable
information to help avoid making the
same mistakes again risk is the concept
associated with safety when we say
something is risky we mean that there is
a good chance something may go wrong
when defining risk this way
it involves both the identification of
the occurrence and the likelihood that
it will happen
never underestimate the importance of
risk assessment the jewel nature of risk
means that a dangerous situation which
happens rarely can carry a risk similar
to a safer activity that has to be
carried out frequently before any
organization can reduce its business and
operational risks
it must have an effective system for
monitoring its exposure and way of
dealing with contingencies in the same
way if a shipping company wants to be
attractive to clients
it must be able to provide an efficient
and reliable service with the minimum of
loss or damage to the cargo crew members
are the key to executing a voyage in a
safe and efficient way however
ninety-six percent of casualties and
seventy percent of fires and explosions
on board ships are reportedly jus to
human factors these figures do not
indicate that the human factor is always
the course but do identify it as a major
contributing factor the human element is
often to be blamed indirectly or
directly in the majority of accidents
and see today it seems to be important
to think before acting and to develop a
culture that all activities are
discussed
and the risk assessed before starting