Evaluation of Factors Influencing Maritime Dangerous Cargo Transport Accidents-Induced Crew Fatalities and Serious Injuries

Maritime dangerous cargo transport accidents can lead to crew fatalities and serious injuries. This paper focuses on these accidents to evaluate the factors involved in these losses. To that end, the relevant reports of 2000–2020 maritime dangerous cargo transport accidents recorded in the Marine Casualties and Incidents (MCI) module of the International Maritime Organization’s Integrated Shipping Information System (IMO-GISIS) database were analyzed. Six initial events in six basic ship operations were determined. This paper combined the entropy weight and Grey relational analysis methods to analyze the involved factors and evaluate the extent of influences of each initial event in various ship operations. The entropy weight (EW) method was applied to determine the weights of basic ship operations. The grey relational analysis method was applied to calculate the correlational degrees of the initial events. Most crew fatalities and severe injuries occur during bunkering, berthing, and mooring operations. Occupational accidents and fires/explosions are the most influential factors; more specifically, occupational accidents during sailing, cargo loading/unloading, anchoring, berthing, and mooring operations and fires/explosions during bunkering operations are most likely to lead to crew fatalities and serious injuries. The results of this paper can aid stakeholders in improving the required strategies to ensure the safety of seafarers during maritime dangerous cargo transport.