Why distraction causing devices are of concern at sea

New guidelines aim to put safeguards in place to mitigate risks.

With the release of the Human Element Working Group’s ‘Guidelines for the Management of Distraction Causing Devices Onboard Ships’, we speak to Dr Will Tutton, CMarTech, FIMarEST, Inspector at the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), and former co-chair of IMarEST’s Human Element Special Interest Group about distraction and the new guidelines.

What is MAIB?

MAIB, while part of the UK Maritime Authority, is an independent unit within the Department for Transport, so separate from the regulator (the Maritime and Coastguard Agency) and other bodies that make up the UK Maritime Authority. Our role is to help prevent further avoidable accidents from occurring through helping a better understanding of cause and circumstance, not to establish blame or liability.

MAIB were not directly involved in the guidelines, but having seen distraction as a factor in recent investigations, it was interesting to see the industry react in this positive manner to this issue.

Many of us have experienced just how distracting smartphones, tablets, and other personal electronic devices can be. Are there other factors that may contribute to distraction on board vessels?

There are different factors that cause people to lose attention. For example, people generally can maintain attention, depending on the nature of the task, for about 20-40 minutes before needing a break. Also, long, boring, or monotonous tasks can be a factor in reducing focus and making distractions more likely.

From this perspective, one has to determine if something has taken their attention away from what they were doing and what effect that can have. It's often not as straightforward as an individual simply switching from one thing to another.

The report mentions some incidents where distraction was a factor. Can you tell us about one of these?

Certainly, Scot Carrier and Karin Hoj is a very sad case, where distraction was just one factor. The second officer of the Scot Carrier was distracted throughout his watch through the use of his tablet. Here, the desire to make the watch more interesting conflicted with the need to conduct an effective watch and was further compromised by the watch officer navigating alone. In addition, the assistive aids that may have helped the second officer focus his attention, such as bridge alarm settings, were not used.

Read the important lessons learned from the 2021 Scot Carrier and Karin Hoj accident.

How do you hope the guidelines will be used?

The benefits of the guidelines seem to be to ensure management understands the hazard distraction can bring and that there needs to be specific countermeasures in place.

Speaking purely personally, I have seen instances where there can be an attempt to encourage front-line personnel to ‘focus more’ - what we call in human factors ‘hyper-vigilance’. This is unsustainable and unrealistic, as people need to be in a supportive environment to maintain attention and ideally conduct tasks that help them manage their attentional resources, which fluctuate.

Companies need to understand why people use technology such as mobile phones before adopting an outright ban. Clearly, technology needs to be controlled and is inappropriate in some contexts, for example, when watchkeeping or near moving vehicles or machinery. But it is needed by seafarers to perform work tasks as well as manage their personal lives. The trick is to build this into the tasks people do and ensure it is clearly understood where their use is appropriate and safe and where it is not.

The guidelines seem to understand this and seek to support companies in determining the appropriate control options for their workplaces, which is to be welcomed.

The Guidelines for the Management of Distraction Causing Devices Onboard Ships is available for download from the IMarEST website.

Tell us what you think about this article by joining the discussion on IMarEST Connect.

Image: personnel from the Swedish Coast Guard investigate the damaged ship Scot Carrier in the port of Ystad, Sweden; credit: Alamy.