Evaluation of maritime accident reports of main search and rescue coordination centre between 2001 and 2012.

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the marine accident and incident reports between 2001 and 2012 by the Main Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (MSARCM). The method of the study was a descriptive-cross-sectional epidemiological study.

Materials And Methods: The data of the research were composed of MSARCM's marine accident, incident and medical evacuation reports between 2001 and 2012. In the research, 1796 marine accident/incident reports were examined. The data were evaluated statistically by frequency distribution, univariate and bivariate regression analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis.

Results: The highest number of cases in the study occurred in 2010 (n = 228, 12.7%). Considering the time of realisation of the cases, the highest number of cases occurred between 12:00 and 17:59 (n = 538, 30.0%). In the total of 1796 cases, there were 150 injured, 6046 rescued, 311 deaths, 202 missing and 73 patients. Considering the causes of accidents, the first three places were bad weather conditions (n = 287, 16.0%), human errors (n = 241, 13.4%) and machine malfunctions (n = 232, 12.9%). In the univariate and bivariate analysis of the data, it was seen that injuries in the Istanbul region were statistically more significant than those in the international region (8.5 fold, 95% confidence interval).

Conclusions: The risk management activities on injuries and accidents need to be carried out more carefully particularly in the areas with a high occurrence of marine accidents/events and medical evacuations (such as strait traffic, ports, shipyards), in the hotspots for shipping accidents.