Development of a maritime collision safety index method

Abstract

Safety has always been a topic with continuous progress. Since the 1990s, the shipping industry has been looking into opportunities to introduce modern technology to improve maritime safety. One recent on-going European project that focuses on safe and efficient navigation is called: Sea Traffic Management (STM), but before it gets implemented it needs to be validated. Research has been done to find accurate methods of validation. The method introduced in this paper is a possible basis for this validation. In this project a maritime collision safety index method has been developed by evaluating the safety in various angles of a two-vessel traffic scenario taking the CPA (Closest Point of Approach) and TCPA (Time of Closest Point of Approach) into consideration. This is a basis that can be used in a multi-vessel traffic scenario. It can be done by splitting up the multivessel scenario to each traffic encounter and choosing the collision safety index from the least safe encounter. The risky zones observed around a vessel were when a vessel is crossing in front of the bow of another, manoeuvrings not according to the COLREG and when the starboard side of a vessel is occupied. The factors contributing to a lower safety index are: rough environmental conditions, heavy traffic, confined waters and technical issues.