Establishing Marine Accident Classification: A Case Study in Taiwan

Abstract

In this paper, we establish criterions for classifying marine accidents to integrate the navigation safety system of Taiwan. Together with unpredictable of marine accidents, theinaccuracy of maritime data in Taiwan makes marine incident information possess thecharacteristic of Gray message as described by Gray Theory. After analyzing the data of 107marine incidents, we classified the accidents into four types by the Gray Clustering Method.The results revealed that the crew’s negligence accounts for 93.5% for the cause of all accidents. Furthermore, 85.1% of crew’s negligence is caused by senior crew. Through classifying marine accidents, this paper not only makes the port managers of port bureaus and insurance companies realize the damage levels of various kinds of marine accidents and their causes, but also provides the managers of harbor bureaus a basis to strengthen seamen’s quality and management.