Collisions and Groundings

Grounding and collisions can lead to a range of negative outcomes, from applying extreme loads upon ship structures, significant hull damage, to loss of life.

No matter how they occur, once they’ve happened it’s vital that you are able to get to the bottom of how a collision or grounding happened.

You need to quickly, and accurately, determine the cause and extent of any damage as well as the potential repair costs.

And that’s where Brookes Bell comes in.

Our team of experienced Master Mariners, marine engineers, cargo scientists and naval architects are on hand to work collaboratively to find out why your collision or grounding occurred.

Brookes Bell collision and grounding investigation and management capabilities

At Brookes Bell, we possess extensive in-house capabilities for casualty management and investigation, including:

  • Vessel modelling
  • Stability/strength assessment
  • International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) cargo consideration
  • On-site project control
  • Expertise in modern navigation techniques including Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS)
  • Experts in how the mariner applies the Collision Regulations (COLREGS)
  • AIS/VDR/MADAS playback tools

AIS, VDR & MADAS playback tools

It’s said that hindsight is 20/20. And, whilst hindsight isn’t necessarily as good as foresight, it can still help you to understand how and why an event occurred and help you prevent it from happening again in the future.

At Brookes Bell, we use our own in-house proprietary software alongside industry leading software which enables us to accurately reconstruct, playback and analyse events at sea or in port.

These tools include:

  • BBSIM Software
  • Automatic Identification System (AIS) Reconstruction
  • Voyage Data Recorder (VDR)
  • Marine Accident Data Analysis Suite (MADAS)
  • Access to Tidal, Currents and Weather Data

Together, these playback tools allow us to undertake a variety of analyses, including:

  • Graphically visualising multiple ships simultaneously on custom backgrounds, or official nautical charts
  • Animating data in real time, or at varying pre-defined playback speeds
  • Full user interactive manipulation, with dynamic zooming/panning and standard media player-style controls

These tools can also incorporate additional information to see how each vessel was interacting, such as weather conditions, navigation light viewing angles, radar and visible ranges for each vessel.

Additionally, we are able to offer various options for exporting the final animations or still images from the tools, making it very easy to use them in submitted documentation.

Brookes Bell’s playbook tools in action

Our playback tools have been used on numerous occasions to evaluate vessel movements prior to and during collision incidents, which has allowed our Master Mariners to advise on likely causation and allocation of responsibility.

The tools have also been used to assist juries in court cases, where visualising and understanding the movements of vessels before an incident occurred is of great importance.

Are you dealing with a collision or grounding? Then Brookes Bell can help. Contact us now to find out more.

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