Maritime shipping is one of most efficient modes of transport today. With the growth in world trade, ship traffic in the world’s oceans has greatly increased over the past decades, making maritime safety increasingly challenging. Despite the considerable effort by the maritime authorities, safety is still a concern especially in heavy traffic areas. European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has reported 20616 marine casualties and incidents worldwide from 2011 to 2017. Globally, the combination of collision (23.2%), contact (16.3%), and grounding/stranding (16.6%) shows that navigational casualties represent 53.1% of all casualties with ships. Furthermore, human error is found to be behind 75% of 15,000 marine liability insurance industry claims analyzed by Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS).
Currently, several conflicts occur at the Singapore Strait every month. Among these conflicts, some have resulted in severe accidents that had large impact on the environment and resulted in loss of lives. Two such recent accidents are shown in Figure 1. The first image, from 2016, shows the impact on MSC Alexandra after it collided with a very large crude carrier Dream II, in Singapore strait, about 1.5 nm from Sebarok island. The second image, from 2019, shows the collision between a 57,000-tonne bulk carrier “Beks Halil” and a smaller bulk carrier while passing the Strait of Singapore. The Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore had reported that the collision occurred about 3.4 km south of Sisters Islands. Such incidents question the efficacy of the current rules in place and demand research and analysis for improvement. Figures 1(a) and 1(b) show the vessel collisions around Singapore.