Lessons learned from accidents on some major European inland waterways

The collection of data on accidents in inland navigation is not mandatory in many European countries. The lack of a harmonized methodology or a centralized database of information on accidents makes it difficult to have a comprehensive picture of safety on European inland waterways. The problem becomes particularly evident in light of significant navigational challenges such as the introduction of autonomous shipping. To provide a better understanding of safety in inland navigation, the paper presents the results of an analysis of data on some 700 accidents which took place on the inland waterways in Austria and Serbia, over a 15-year period (2001/2002–2017). The analysis identifies the safety “hot spots” and the most important safety issues on examined waterways. Contrary to the widely-accepted belief, the results do not confirm that most of the accidents could be attributed to human failures and show that the removal of human operators from inland vessels could only have a limited positive impact on safety unless other aspects (primarily related to maintenance of the fleet and the waterway) are considered. Consequently, the paper outlines the fundamental conditions in which it would be possible to reduce the human presence or even remove the crew from inland ships.