Recording accident data helps investigations and future safety

摘要

Maritime accidents such as those of Herald of Free Enterprise, Scandinavian Star and Estonia, continue to result in heavy loss of life and serious damage to the environment. Since 1990 about 1000 ships have been lost with more than 6500 human casualties (IUMI source September 1998 -Journal de la Marine Marchande) (see Fig 1). These accidents may be prevented from recurring through better awareness of their causes and circumstances (see Fig 2).