ABSTRACT
To be able to investigate maritime accidents and incidents, we must first have a thorough understanding of why accidents and incidents occur in the first place. We know from the previous two chapters that safety is a legal obligation that is placed on every organisation. An accident or incident is the consequence of failing to comply with that legal duty. To ensure failures like this do not happen, organisations are required to carry out detailed safety planning in relation to their scope of operations. The planning of safety-related activities that should be carried out during the development of safety-related systems is a critical activity. Yet, frequently, insufficient effort and resources are spent on ensuring robust safety plans are developed, followed, and where appropriate, modified in accordance with emerging organisational needs. The safety plan should provide an initial indication of how the safety of the system is to be assured, what safety target(s) have been identified, how they will be met, and provide an outline of the strategy to be employed through which safety system objectives will be achieved and demonstrated. Like the term organisation, when we refer to the system, we may refer to an individual component (such as radar), a microsystem such as a navigational watch or cargo loading operation, or a macrosystem, such as bridge or engine room operations or even the whole vessel. The first step in safety planning is to carry out a preliminary hazard analysis. This is a process of identifying and qualifying potential hazards within the system.
