A hybrid approach to determining the human factor in Ro-Ro ship accidents

Maritime transport has a large share in trade of world among the modes of transport due to the advantages it provides, especially the economy of scale. Large quantities of cargoes can be transported economically and safely from one place to another at once by ships. Besides transporting large amounts of cargo provides an economic advantage, it also requires careful attention in terms of safety. At the same time, it is necessary to consider environmental factors when ships are navigating in overseas waters. From this point of view, ship accidents can create great problems both economically and environmentally. In this context, the examination of maritime accidents has great importance in terms of predicting the causes that will lead to the accident and taking precautions. While investigating maritime accidents, it has been observed that the causes of accidents vary in different ship types due to their different characteristics. In this context, it is more correct to evaluate the accidents separately according to the ship types. Ro-Ro ships differ from other ship types in terms of their short cruising times, their voyages between fixed ports, their maneuvers and port operations. In this study, 30 different accidents that occurred on Ro-Ro ships were discussed. The accident causes obtained from the examined accident reports were discussed in the focus group meeting. After the general evaluation, the frequencies and distributions of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) categories of the accidents were examined and statistical analyzes were applied. The criteria obtained by discussing at the meeting were evaluated with the Analytical Network Process (ANP) approach. Evaluation was obtained with the opinions of 2 Oceangoing Masters, 2 Oceangoing Masters-Academicans, 1 Watchkeeping 1st Officer-Academican and 1 Watchkeeping Engineer-Academican, who participated in the focus group meeting. According to the ANP approach, the relations of the criteria with each other were determined and it was aimed to determine the degree of importance among the criteria by establishing matrices. In addition to this purpose, suggestions have been made to eliminate or minimize the factors that cause ship accidents.