Ship accident

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Wrecked oil rig P-34 with support vessels off the Brazilian coast (October 2002)
Exxon Valdez three days after hit a reef (1989)
Andrea Doria listed after the collision with lifeboats on the port side (1956)
Ship Listed On A Reef (2018)

A ship accident (officially marine accident , colloquially also ship accident ; English ship accident ) is a damaging event in the water , in which a ship is involved.

description

Incidents that are classified as marine casualties include deaths, serious injuries, and cases of missing persons on board in connection with the operation of a ship or cases in which the crew was seriously endangered. Other ship accidents include damage due to ground contact, collision , fire or explosion on board ships as well as bad weather. In addition, the term marine casualty also describes technical incidents that seriously endanger the safe navigation of the ship, or cases of environmental hazards or pollution. In the event of severe ground contact, for example, bunker oil may leak from the bunker tanks, some of which are located in the double floor below the waterline. In particularly severe cases, the ship can also break apart, e.g. B. in the case of the Amoco Cadiz , which got caught in a severe storm off Brittany in 1978 , hit a rock and broke apart. About 233,000 tons of crude oil leaked . One of the world's worst environmental catastrophes was the result.

So-called voyage data recorders , a black box for ships, are used to investigate marine casualties .

A ship accident in which a ship and a submarine collide is rare. For example, in 2001 the US submarine Greenville accidentally sank the Japanese fishing training vessel Ehime Maru while surfacing .

Marine casualty investigation

In all serious ship accidents on ships in German territorial waters and on ships flying the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as if there is a "significant German investigation interest ", an investigation is carried out by the Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation after the accident . If the maritime office commissioned in this procedure establishes a misconduct in the subsequent negotiation - e.g. B. an accident caused by the influence of alcohol  - fixed, z. B. the patent of the responsible person can be withdrawn by the Maritime Administration. The withdrawal of the certificate of competency can be limited - in severe cases it is permanent. In the case of less serious offenses, the Maritime Administration usually imposes a fine. Since the Maritime Administration has no further criminal or civil law powers, a separate process before the relevant courts can follow after the investigation by the Maritime Administration.

Legal issues

The Maritime Safety Investigation Law (SUG) defined for purposes of occupational safety and health of workers on ships and environmental protection in § 1a no. 1 SUG the maritime accident as an event that the death or serious injury of people, the disappearance of a person from boarding a Ship, the loss or abandonment of a ship, property damage to a ship, the runaway or wreckage of a ship or the involvement of a ship in a collision, property damage caused by or in connection with the operation of a ship, or environmental damage as a result of a results in damage to one or more ships caused by or in connection with the operation of one or more ships.

Marine casualties are classified into three categories according to Section 1a SUG:

  • Very serious marine casualties (SSU) result in the loss of a human life, the total loss of the ship or significant environmental pollution.
  • Serious marine casualties (SU) are accidents that do not fall under "very serious marine casualties", but which require assistance from outside the ship. This could be fire, collision, ground contact, considerable damage to the ship or the like.
  • (Less serious) marine casualties (WSU) are those marine casualties that are not classified in the above two categories.

Minor cases are not regarded as marine casualties, but as an incident .

The Ship Safety Act (SchSG) determines which measures are to be taken when implementing the applicable international regulations on ship safety and environmental protection at sea in order to ensure safety and environmental protection at sea as well as the directly related occupational health and safety ( Section 1 Para. 1 SchSG). According to § 2 SchSG, it applies to seagoing vessels with a federal flag and to inland vessels that are registered in a German shipping register and to ships flying a foreign flag with which coastal shipping is carried out or which are used commercially on maritime waterways or in the seaward area of ​​the German coastal sea. Whoever uses a ship for seafaring is obliged to ensure its safe operation and, in particular, to ensure that it and its accessories are kept in an operationally safe condition and safely operated and that the necessary precautions to protect third parties from dangers arising from operation and for protection the marine environment and the air from hazards or unlawful interference from operation. This also includes that persons who are commissioned for this in the shipping company and on the ship are effectively selected, instructed, instructed, observed and supported ( § 3 SchSG).

In 1986 Germany joined the International Maritime Organization , the aim of which is to achieve cooperation between the contracting states to improve safety at sea, the efficiency of shipping and the prevention and control of marine pollution from ships.

Maritime accident of international importance and impact also on the can UN appointed International Tribunal ( English International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ) will be in charge, who took up his duties on 18 October 1996 and since then its headquarters in Hamburg has.

fail

The failure ( English foundering ) is a ship accident in which the in shipping watercraft shattered. The ship hits cliffs , sandbanks , beaches or shallows or has got stuck on the shore and is so badly damaged that the ship's crew has to leave it unable to maneuver . Also, the running aground belongs to failure. In contrast to this is the stranding , which leaves the ship largely undamaged.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation: Annual Report 2009, p. 9
  2. ↑ Christian von Gerlach, Die Seesicherheitsuntersprüfung , 2005, p. 28
  3. ↑ August Schiebe , Textbook of Contor Science , Part I, 1853, p. 533 FN 2-7