Citation

Vinagre-Ríos J, Pérez-Canosa JM, Iglesias-Baniela S. J. Navig. 2021; 74(5): 1189-1199.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Royal Institute of Navigation of Great Britain, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S0373463321000333

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that humans are subject to circadian alterations caused by the action of sunlight. This strongly affects their behaviour and skill, making them change their level of alertness from high at daytime to low at night-time. Taking into account this biological feature, and considering that commercial shipping is one of the oldest round-the-clock activities, raises the question whether bridge watchkeepers can carry out their tasks on night shifts with the same level of alertness as on day shifts. Furthermore, night bridge watchkeeping has to be performed in darkness or very dim light to improve the visual capacity of lookouts. A sample of vessel collisions was analysed and it was find out that this kind of accident tends to be more frequent and more serious during the darkness period of the solar day.

Language: en

Keywords

bridge; human error; safety