ISM CODE AND INCIDENTS REDUCTION AMONG SEAFARERS

Abstract

Safety is a culture that must prevails. ISM (International Safety Management) code is considered to be very important in present times to ensure safety of people, equipment and material being loaded on board ships. The code was the prepared in 1994 and fully implemented in 1998. ISM code is considered added as Chapter XI of SOLAS (Safety of life at sea) convention. Literature review from the past studies and researches are used as a guide line to carry out further research that how ISM is helping to enhance the safety standards and making life safe on-board ship by the use of standards safety SOPs as recommended by the IMO (International Maritime Organization). Experienced Merchant navy officer sailing in national as well as foreign flag shipping companies are being questioned and interviewed to collect the data which helped to carry out the research to check the relationship. The research is based on identifying the impacts of this code on the life of Seafarers. Seven Variables have been selected to see the impacts on safety standards after the implementation of this code. Statistical analysis is being used to calculate the dependency of variable on the overall safety standards on board. This Study also compares the safety standards on inland vessels and foreign going vessels to get an idea how completely following the rules as mentioned in ISM we can achieve Safety excellence. This whole study can help seafarers, shipping company owners, port authorities to get familiar how certain variables are affecting the safety benchmarks and which variables are affecting from most to least.