Give officers Facebook and improve safety posted on: 10 May, 2011 Rather than forcing Officers of the Watch (OOWs) to act like dumb automatons in responding to a BNWAS every 30 minutes, would letting them indulge in their own distractions enhance vessel safety?
In conversation with one ECDIS training provider, MITE learnt that young officers fortunate enough to be sailing on vessels equipped with broadband connections sometimes while away their hours on watch updating their social networking sites. This might not be as irresponsible and dangerous as it first sounds. Indeed, it chimes with the findings of new research on driver safety, emanating from the States. >From this July, Bridge Navigational Watch Alarm Systems (BNWAS) will start to >become mandatory, under IMO regulations, implemented through its Maritime >Safety Committee (MSC). Under the terms of the amendments to SOLAS Chapter V, >Reg 19, new cargo ships over 150gt and all new passenger ships of any size >built after 1 July will have to be equipped with a BNWAS. Implementation will >then be phased in on existing tonnage over the following three years. BNWAS are designed to monitor bridge activity and detect lapses in attention that could lead to an accident. The performance standards state that the BNWAS should monitor the awareness of the OOW and automatically alert the master (or another qualified OOW) if for any reason the OOW becomes incapacitated. Under BNWAS, this should be achieved through a series of indications and alarms. It should also provide the OOW with a means of calling for assistance if required, and should be operational whenever the ship's heading or track control system is engaged, unless inhibited by the Master. But are BNWAS really an effective solution to deck officer inattention? These alarm systems differ little from the Dead Man's Handle introduced on locomotives and urban mass transit systems early last century. Unlike the steam trains they superseded (when there was invariably a second person aboard who could most likely bring the train to a stop in an emergency), the driver on the newer locomotives is typically alone in the cab so failsafe automatic brakes were deemed desirable. A similar mechanism was also employed on the nuclear bomb release system built into bombers such as the B-52 Stratofortress. It would ensure that the aircraft's payload of nuclear weapons would detonate in the event of the crew becoming debilitated by enemy missiles or other defences. Once armed, the system would ensure that the onboard nuclear weapons detonated if the aircraft dropped below a predetermined altitude. It is from this application where the term Dead Man's Handle was originally coined. Arguably BNWAS addresses the symptom, not the cause. Would it not be better to stop officer's losing concentration in the first place? Recent research on road safety undertaken at Kansas University (and published in The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society [1]) suggests that a certain level of driver induced voluntary distraction may be a good thing. This article was taken from the latest copy of Maritime IT & Electronics, Apr/May 2011 - to read the rest of this article or if you would like to subscribe to this publication, please contact Lorraine Jordan at [email protected], or telephone 0207 382 2606 ------------------------------------ 1. Moderator tidak bertanggung jawab atas kebenaran isi dan/atau identitas asli pengirim berita. 2. ATTACHMENT akan dibanned, krmkan ke pelaut-owner atau upload ke FILE. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pelaut/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pelaut/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
