Discover three primary reasons why marine accident and incident investigation training is crucial for port and harbour authorities.

17/3/20 COVID-19 update: As our training courses are delivered most effectively in person, all courses hosted by ABPmer in Southampton originally scheduled in March and April have been cancelled. We will offer you a full refund of the course fee, or you may wish to sign up to one of our future courses below.

Marine accidents and incidents can happen at any time. Understanding why they happened allows actions to be taken to prevent reoccurrence. It is therefore vital to have a skilled investigator to understand the chain of events leading to an accident or incident, and identify safety measures that can be implemented.

Here are three key reasons why accident and incident investigation training is crucial for port and harbour authorities:

1. Risk is inherent in marine operations

The marine environment is hazardous to work in. Accidents and incidents can occur at any time, and can be the result of a range of interconnected causes.

2. Authorities are responsible

Under the Port Marine Safety Code, harbour authorities and organisations have a duty to investigate accidents and incidents to determine the cause or whether an offence has been committed.

3. Understanding is essential for prevention

In the event of an accident or incident, understanding what happened, and why, is essential to identify preventative action. Accidents and incidents can have many individual causes which together result in the accident or incident. What may appear to be a single instance of human error may, in reality, be a chain of errors and control failures leading to the adverse event.

Marine accident and incident investigation

ABPmer runs a two-day course exploring the whole accident and incident investigation process, ideal for anyone involved in assessing marine risk or investigating maritime accidents and incidents.

The course considers how to collate and analyse the required information then compile an investigation report with recommendations for improving safety.

2020 course dates

31 March – 1 April 2020 - cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions
21 – 22 October 2020

ABP Ocean Gate, Southampton SO14 3QN

If you are interested in our training course, please email us, call +44 (0)23 8071 1889, or visit our training page for more information.

^{Image reproduced by kind permission of the MAIB
Post originally published on 26 February 2018 as 'Reasons why you need marine accident and incident investigation training'}