Barbados Maritime

23 November 2006

Press Release

NEW GUIDELINES FOR MARINE CASUALTY INVESTIGATORS

The Barbados Maritime Ship Registry (BMSR) has developed a new set of incident reporting guidelines for marine investigators. According to BMSR, the new guidelines have been introduced to ensure that general marine investigations conducted on behalf of a flag state are focused on understanding the cause of an incident rather than simply apportioning blame. BMSR Principal Registrar Chris Sawyer believes that the culture of blame has become too prevalent in marine casualty investigations.

He comments: "Under the influence of the 'culture of blame' we now live in, it has become increasingly difficult to give the 'learning from accidents' the attention it deserves. The concentration on attaching blame has gained ascendancy due to the way ship related legislation is now being written, together with the efforts of both lawyers and underwriters using the assignment of blame as a means to reach closure."

According to Chris Sawyer, flag state investigations' primary aim should be to understand the cause of the incident and to circulate this knowledge to prevent its reoccurrence both within the registered fleet and across the marine industry at large. The new guidelines enable BMSR's investigators to produce consistent and focused reports. The guidance takes the investigator through the various facets of an investigation dealing with all influences, differentiated by time, geographical location and the magnitude of each influence. Investigators are shown how direct enquiries, describe the casualty event in phases and provide linkage to each phase. The guidelines are freely available to all marine investigators.

ENDS

Notes to editors BMSR is a high-quality open ship registry headquartered in London with offices around the world. A wide range of internationally owned vessels flies the Barbados flag including tankers, bulk carriers, containerships and yachts.

BMSR works on behalf of the Government of Barbados and prides itself on its proactive approach to safety and inspection issues. It requires all its vessels to be well managed and to meet international maritime safety and environmental conventions. BMSR is amongst the world's best ship registries and has been designated a "white list" flag by the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control and is part of the US Coast Guard's QUALSHIP 21 Program designed to identify quality controlled vessels visiting US ports.

The BMSR team, headed-up by former Germanischer Lloyd Principal Surveyor and UK Manager Chris Sawyer, provides a personal 24 hour service to its shipowning clients.

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