Determinants of the severity of cruise vessel accidents

Abstract

This study investigates determinants of the property damage and injury severities of cruise vessel accidents. Detailed data of individual cruise vessel accidents for the 11-year time period 1991-2001 that were investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard were used to estimate cruise-vessel accident property damage and injury severity equations. The estimation results suggest that cruise vessel damage cost per vessel gross ton is greater for: allision, collision, equipment-failure, explosion, fire, flooding, and grounding cruise vessel accidents than for other types of accidents and a human cause. The accident injury severity is greater for ocean cruise than for inland waterway and harbor/dinner cruise vessel accidents and a human cause. The unit damage cost of $207 for explosion accidents is greater than that for other types of accidents. If the accident is caused by a human factor, the probability of non-fatal and fatal injuries increases by 0.0877 and 0.0077, respectively.