The Web of Human Factors on Maritime Accidents in Nigeria: Empirical Perspective

Abstract

The maritime industry is perhaps the most complex international industries with huge and high- risk whose incidents have high potential for the occurrences of accidents. A very large proportion of these accidents have been attributed to human factors elements. This study elucidates the dominants human factors elements that have contributed to marine accident in the Nigeria navigational waters. A descriptive survey was carried out and data collected using well- structured questionnaires distributed to 1000 respondents, out of which 821(82.1%) was retrieved. An appropriate statistical tool (SPSS Softwares-2010 Chicago version) was employed for predictors/independent variables at level of significance ? =0.05. The socio-demographic results showed that majority (78.4%) of the respondents are of sound mind with over 10 years of working experience. It was found that there is a significant difference in the influences of dominant human factors elements on marine accidents in Nigeria navigational waters since Fcomputed (17.345)? Fcritical(1.8799).Moreso, there is a strong and positive relationship between the human factors elements and marine accidents in Nigeria, since R=0.813 and 66.1% of the variance in marine accidents can be explained by variations in the human factors elements. In addition, there is a predictable influence of the integral human factors elements on marine accident in Nigeria navigational waters. Furthermore, since, the P-value is 0.02 for the multiple logistic regressions and there are differential AOR of the predictors on human factors elements marine related accidents; The generated model is efficient on human factors mitigation for marine accident reduction in Nigeria navigational waters. Six(6) out of the ten(10) identified human related factors/error namely crew fatigue, unruly behavior, unsafe vessel speed, commercial pressure from management, lack of maintenance culture, organizational structure/inadequate safety culture wer