Workplace hazards and occupational risks: A research on occupational accidents aboard merchant ships

Sea transport is one of the world's largest industries and with the participation of thousands of sailors, millions of tons of cargo are delivered to the port of destination from the port of loading. In maritime transportation, the duty of the seafarer is to navigate the ship and its cargo to the harbor in the safest manner possible without harming the ship, the environment, cargo and workers. However, seafarers are faced with the risk of injury and death as a result of damage to the cargo and the ship and during the dangerous works on board ship. In addition, the difficulties in working environment, psychosocial and psychological conditions negatively affect seafarers and cause occupational accidents. In many studies, the risk of death and injury of seafarers was found to be ten times higher than those working on land. In order to prevent these accidents, to take necessary preventive measures and to improve working and living conditions on the ship, it is very important to understand and analyze the accidents that occurred before. Therefore, the aim of this study is to discover and explore accident patterns and risk factors causing accidents by conducting exploratory and descriptive analyzes on the data obtained from work accidents on commercial ships. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the research process. In the qualitative research process, a general framework has been tried to be presented by giving descriptive analyzes to work accidents. In the quantitative research process, data mining methods were applied to the data and the relationships between the variables and the risk factors affecting the severity of injury were determined. It was found that the most important variable in determining the severity of the injury caused by occupational accidents was the work performed during the accident. In addition, it was evaluated that unsafe work and failure to comply with the instructions were the most important causes of accidents in the occurrence of accidents through the Analytic Hierarchy Process. In order to prevent occupational accidents, practices that minimize human-machine interaction should be developed and seafarers' safety perception should be improved through continuous training and drills.