Human Elements in Shipping Casualties: Phase I

Phase I of the Human Elements in Shipping Casualties project was underterkaen by Patrick Quinn and Sheila Scott, and took the form of a pilot study with the objective "to identify shipping casualties caused by human error and to study significant and recurring errors in order to assess feasibility of preventive measures." The pilot study ran from Dec 1981 to Dec 1982 and resulted in mainly outputs of quantitative data extracted from statistics from the Department of Trade's (DoT) computerised data and documentation.

The methodology of Phase 1 included a literature search of published and unpublished studies, a search of existing information systems within the DoT, the identification and study of significant and recurring human errors in shipping casualties, the development of casualty scenarios leading to the construction of casualty profiles, and an assessment of the feasibility of preventive measures.