Hazard and risk in the New England fishing fleet

The United States Coast Guard and the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center studied the 102 serious fishing vessel accidents (1993-1997) in Coa st Guard District 1 (New England and Long Island, New York), U.S. national fleet accident data, and international fishing vessel safety programs for t he purpose of establishing risk factors and formulating options for future action by the Coast Guard to enhance fleet safety. The 102 regional acciden ts involved total vessel losses and/or death(s), excluding strictly occupat ional cases. Each accident was studied in detail to determine causality amo ng human and organizational. fishery and operational, and preventive safety factors. Causality in each case was assigned among the factors, summing to 1.0 and weighted according to the outcome of the accident, i.e., numbers o f deaths and injuries. The results quantify (1) the aggregate "significance " of the causal factors; (2) the average weighted outcome of accidents by t ype (e.g., capsize, collision); and (3) the sensitivity of (1) and (2) to v aried relative weightings of vessel losses and deaths.