Waterway accident characteristics assessment and information system development

Abstract

Inland Water Transport (IWT), which contributes 30% of the overall freight transport output and 20% of passenger travel, plays a very significant role in the transport system of Bangladesh. Its low expenses and high accessibility, as compared with other alternatives, causes such high demand for water transportation in the country despite very poor level of service. The most critical deficiency in Bangladesh water transport sector relates to the safety aspect As reported by the Department of Shipping, since 1977 about 3000 died in 285 reported accidents in the waterways of the country. It should be recognised that the figure does not include significant numbers of unreported accidents. Mainly due to high risk of accident, the waterway transportation system has only been used by the captive users despite possessing geographical advantage. A safer waterway has the potential to relieve burden on other modes of transportation and render a balanced, multimodal and sustainable transport system for the country. To enhance safety of waterway system it is essential to analyse characteristics of waterway accidents. Accident characterization needs accident related information. This project thesis develops the information system of waterway accidents and studies the characteristics of those occurring in Bangladesh. This study is limited to analyse the waterway accidents occurred in Bangladesh during last 10 years. Waterway Accidents include accidents related to formal and informal motor propelled passenger vessels only. As there exists only few previous studies in the field of waterway accident in Bangladesh, the framework is developed following the methodological framework of roadway accident analysis. Geographical information system (GIS) has been used to develop waterway accident information system Hazardous locations were also identified through utilization of GIS. A total of I 14 accidents were analysed in the study on the basis of information available from secondary sources and newspapers. This data covers the major waterway accidents occurring in the country for the last 10 years. It is observed that the number of fatalities was more than 3000 during this period. The most predominant causes of accident are found to be cyclone (31%), collision (28%) and overloading (24%) During cyclone or collision stability of vessel is lost due to overloading. Therefore overloading is a very significant supplementary factor. It is observed that collision type of accidents is likely to be occurring more in dark time, fair weather condition and is evenly distributed over the year. Accident caused by cyclone is likely to be occurring more in bright light, stormy weather condition and during April to August. Since the age distribution of waterway accident victims is tilted towards the young, the reduction in length of life and hence loss of productivity is substantial, compared with the more frequent causes of death (cancer and heart diseases), which are associated with old ages. GIS based' Accident Information System' reveals that there exist a few locations where the frequency of accident is high. Most of the accidents at these locations have been caused by bad weather. A navigational information system integrated with meteorological forecasting system can contribute in reducing such accidents. Future research should concentrate on these topics.