TRIS Online Record

Title	RECENT TOWING SPILLS POINT TO I-HOF AS CAUSE
Accession No	00932246
Authors	Abernathy, B
Conference Title	Proceedings of the Marine Safety Council
Period Covered	pp 35-37
Corp. Authors / Publisher	United States Coast Guard
Publication Date	20020600
Languages	English
Abstract	The U.S. Coast Guard's Office of Investigations and Analysis has been reviewing the casualty data for oil spills of 10 gallons or more when the spills originated from a towing vessel of a barge for the period 1994-2000. The article discusses the reasons for the spills as well as presumed human factors/errors in these. 37% of the cases investigated were determined to be results of overflows, overfills, or transfers; they all involved a human or organizational factor. The article provides some examples of reasons for oil spills that include: failure to fully close or open valves; excessive transfer rates; improper crew relief; or failure in training/labeling. The article concludes that addressing human and organizational factors (HOF) might have prevented more than 30% of the examined and documented spills.
TRT Terms	Accident investigation ; Human factors ; Marine safety ; Oil spills ; Spills (Pollution)
Subject Areas	M14 POLLUTION ABATEMENT AND CONTROL
Availability	United States Coast Guard
TRIS Files	MRIS
Database	TRIS Online

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