PREVIOUS | TABLE OF CONTENTS | NEXT

7.0  RISK ANALYSIS

7.1 General

• Most tug/barge safety regulations focus on "hardware". Only a few regulations focus on the human factor. The experience of most industries is that a good safety record depends very largely on the safety consciousness of employees and the routine use of safe practices. The "hardware" factor is not very important, although proper maintenance and monitoring of equipment are of some importance
  
  
• Data cited in Zaharia [20] indicates that for the Western Canada region for the period 1975 to April 1998:
  
  

  - the number of accidents by tugs and barges involving fatalities or injuries was 65 for tugs, 13 for barges
  

  - the number of fatalities was 44 for tugs, 13 for barges
  

  - the number of serious injuries was 19 for tugs, two for barges
  

  - the number of minor injuries was 26 for tugs, seven for barges
  
  

• Risk analysis cannot develop "an acceptable measure of risk" to be used as a criterion to assess existing or proposed safety regulations. "Acceptable" risk is inherently a subjective matter

7.2 Canadian Data

• Between 1975 and 2001, there were 1,099 reportable marine accidents involving a tug and/ or barge, and possibly other vessels. This is an average of 40.7 per year
  
  
• Between 1975 and 2001 a total of 1,525 vessels were involved in 1,100 tug and barge accidents on the BC coast, or an average of 1.39 vessels per accident
  
  
• There has been a notable increase in the average number of vessels damaged in reportable marine accidents involving tugs and/or barges. The average increased from 0.73 in the period 1975 to 1979, to 0.90 in 1980 to 1984, to 1.27 between 1985 and 1994, to 1.45 in the period 1995 to 1999
  
  
• Of the 1,100 unique tug and barge accidents on the BC coast between 1975 and 2001, 62 vessels were sunk of which 34 were tugs, 20 were barges, and 8 were other vessels. A total of 89 vessels were deemed to be a constructive total loss
  
  
• This analysis of tug/barge accidents on the BC coast indicates that very few people die in such accidents, a total of 61 over the period 1975 to 2001 or only an average of 2.26 persons per year. Given the fact that some 3,000 persons are currently employed in the industry, the annual risk of death is 0.075 percent. Or, for every 1,333 persons employed in the tug and barge industry, only one person is likely to be killed each year
  
  
• This analysis indicates that 22 (or 36.1%) of the 61 fatalities between 1975 and 2001 occurred on other vessels involved in a tug and/or barge accident. In the 1,100 "unique" accidents, 799 tugs and 701 were involved, but only 25 other vessels were involved. Thus it seems clear that when another type of vessel is involved in an accident with a tug and/or barge the risk of death to persons on the other vessel is vastly higher than it is for persons on the tug and/or barge
  
  
• Comparatively, working in the BC tug and barge industry was far less risky (only one-tenth as risky) than simply being the proverbial average Canadian for one year
  
  
• For the period 1997 to 2001, the total cost of WCB claims by employees of the BC tug and barge industry was $29.79 million or an average of just under $6 million per year. The average cost of these claims was $13,480. By comparison, the average cost of all WCB claims for all industries in BC over the same period was $10,022. The difference is largely a reflection of the longer duration of claims in the year of injury. By comparison, the average cost per injury claim for all types of motor vehicle collisions in BC between 1997 and 2001 was $35,143
  
  
• The cost of WCB claims rose from an average of $4.18 million p.a. in 1997 to 1999 to just over $10 million in 2001, an increase of 140%
  
  
• The injury rate (claims per 100 person years) fell from 15.8 in 1997 to 12.7 in 2000 and 13.8 in 2001, a decline of 16.7%
  
  
• The average cost of WCB claims rose from $8,895 in 1997 to $25,574 in 2001, an increase of 188%; and
  
  
• The average cost of WCB claims per person year of employment rose from $1,406 in 1997 to $3,525 in 2001, an increase of 151%
  
  
• The recent trend with respect to the average cost of WCB claims in the BC tug and barge industry is exactly the opposite of that for BC as a whole. The rate of increase (188% over five years) must be said to be alarming when the average cost per claim for all industries in BC declined by 16%
  
  
• The average annual probability of a tug being involved in an accident was 6.73% between 1990 and 1995, and 5.23% between 1996 and 2001

7.3 USA Data

• There were 1,531 unique tug/barge accidents involving one or more tugs and/or one or more barges or an average of 69.6 over the 22 year period 1980 to 2001. Of the 1,531 unique accidents, 936 occurred during towing operations, while 595 occurred during non-towing operations
  
  
• Between 1980 and 2001, there were 1,531 reported unique marine accidents involving a tug and/or barge or an average of 69.6 per year
  
  
• Between 1980 and 2001 on the US West Coast, a total of 1,206 tugs and 819 barges were involved in a total of 1,534 unique tug/barge accidents
  
  
• Between 1980 and 2001 a total of 56 barges and 108 tugs were sunk on the US West Coast as a result of tug/barge accidents
  
  
• Over the 22-year period there were only 41 deaths in US West Coast tug/barge accidents or an average of 1.86 p.a. Fewer than 2.7% of tug/barge accidents resulted in a death
  
  
• Because of the large number of deaths in the period 1980 to 1984 (an average of 5.1 p.a.), there appears to be a strong downward trend in the risk of death for crew members of tugs/ barges on the US West Coast. In 2000 to 2001, the average was 1.5 p.a.- but in 1990 to 1991 the average was zero, and in 1985 to 1989 and 1995 to 1999 the average was 1.2 p.a.

PREVIOUS | TABLE OF CONTENTS | NEXT