Mental Workload and stress as a factor in the occurrence of ship accidents. Under contract of the National Foundation for the Coordination of Maritime Research in the Netherlands (NFCMR), the causal relationships of 127 ship accidents were analysed with regard to the question whether mental workload or stress plays a role in the occurrence of these accidents. This study follows earlier studies with regard to the question whether ergonomic factors, personality or skillfulness are involved in the occurrence of ship accidents. The actual study shows that in almost 20% of the analysed ship accidents, mental workload or stress contributed to the occurrence of the accidents. According to the difficulty with which these factors can be distracted from the judgements of the Netherlands Board of Inquiry on Shipping Accidents, this number is a minimum. Accidents with fishing ships occur about three times more often than accidents with other ships. Of the accidents with fishing ships, fatigue plays an important role. Almost all of these accidents occur at night. (Author/publisher)
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