The first safety campaign run by the Port of London Authority has been launched. The campaign focuses on the Human Factor and held their Annual Stakeholder Forum on the 9th May. The PLA decided that the needed to target the human error that takes place in an incident. After some analysis of incident data, it was found that the biggest cause of navigational incidents on the Tidal Thames over the course of the last two years was human error.
The Port of London Authority took guidance from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency when developing their campaign idea in order to publicise the twelve top people related factors that are involved in incidents. After research it was found that over the last two years’ human error was a factor that was connected to over 40% of the accidents that took place on the river. It is thought that most people trip up over the simplest of things, whether the incident involves recognizing that they were distracted or not clear enough when delivering their instructions.
The campaign by the Port of London Authority has created a mnemonic for the campaign, depicting the “deadly dozen” common factors in accidents in the phrase HUMAN FACTORS. The campaign is to raise awareness of these factors and over the course of the next twelve months the port authority has said that they will be giving out more hints and tips to use the river safely. This advice includes a number of different elements like best practice and communication as well as avoiding distractions. The research also showed that the chance of accidents increases closer to winter and it starts to get darker earlier.
The mnemonic HUMAN FACTORS breaks down in to: Habits; Unity; Mindfulness; Attentiveness; Notifying; Fitness for duty; Ability; Communication; Tensions; Overtired; Routine; Safety culture. It is thought that the points raised through this process will help those on the river identify a risk before an accident.
