Because Italy needs the National Maritime Safety Agency

We need a national maritime safety agency, equipped with an adequate number of independent investigators and modern tools, which has the institutional task of ascertaining the technical and organizational causes of accidents at sea. The intervention of Francesco D'Arrigo, director of the Italian Institute for Strategic Studies "Niccolò Machiavelli"

“The second part of an in-depth study follows; the first part on the structure, organization and tasks of the Port Authority-Coast Guard Corps can be read here )

The double dependence on two ministries (Defense and Infrastructure and Transport), the breadth, variety and complexity of the activities carried out in close collaboration with five other ministries, the synergy with both military and civilian international bodies, place the Corps of the Captaincies as a fundamental institution not only for our country, but for the whole Mediterranean and Europe.

The various provisions of the last governments, which have had a consistent impact on the operating rules of the Coast Guard, have introduced changes that have influenced the search and rescue system, attributing a more penetrating role to the Interior Ministry, giving priority to sea control activities for the purposes of combating crime and illegal immigration, with respect to all the other tasks entrusted to it?

Are there rules, regulations, directives, rules of engagement, which conflict or create short circuits with the various activities that the Coast Guard carries out as an institutional body for maritime activities, affecting its operational readiness?

In each incident, the authorities are concentrated on the judicial aspects that develop in processes that last several years and whose purpose is to punish any perpetrators of crimes, but equally fundamental is to understand as soon as possible what the political factors are- cultural and organizational that can allow us to prevent them, leaving the logic of case by case, focusing only on the "fait accompli" and thinking exclusively of criminal prosecution rather than the prevention of future accidents.

Accident investigations become fundamental in order to establish their genesis and responsibilities from a legal and criminal point of view, while from the point of view of safety and prevention it is essential to understand in the shortest possible time the factors that determine them, through an analysis methodology which relates the three major elements involved in the production of the chain of "errors" that cause an accident: the nature of the task and its environmental circumstances, the mechanisms governing performance and the nature of individuals (Reason, 1990).

The understanding and minimization of risk in cases of accidents at sea no longer pass exclusively through geopolitical or judicial factors, but through organizational models and technological, economic, environmental, social and cultural factors.

To avoid the risks of inconsistent legislative provisions issued by the various ministries to which the activities of the Port Authorities' Corps pertain, of arbitrariness, of violations or of the "human factor", which can cause accidents, it is necessary to strengthen the principle of «Accountability»: the responsibility of those who manage and those responsible for carrying out security checks not only in the maritime sector but in all organisations, infrastructures, public assets, companies, etc.

The lack of safety in a single structure that causes catastrophic phenomena such as those of the collapse of the Genoa bridge , of the Stresa-Mottarone cableway or the latter shipwreck of a boat near our coasts, has a devastating impact not only on the territory where industries, workers, the intense relationship that is established through the presence of the company in a geographical area, the alterations experienced by a community are manifested, regardless of objective factors and the level of wealth that that company ensures to the territory.

The meaning that a disastrous accident assumes in the international collective imagination, especially if it involves citizens of different nationalities, goes so far as to identify it as a symbol of alienation of environmental values ​​and imbalances attributed to the entire country. Events of this gravity, in addition to the unacceptable loss of human lives, cause inestimable damage to the image of Italy and to the excellence of Made in Italy, which in the age of social media and in a context of economic warfare like the present one, immediately transform into boycott media campaigns against our industries and products of all kinds (cultural, food, iron and steel products and/or technology, architecture, sports, clothing, etc.), with negative repercussions on the trade balance and on collective well-being.

Our State and our institutions have been bogged down for many years in the midst of an uninspiring ford blocked by the backwardness of the bureaucratic and technological structure; from an oppressive tax system; from a healthcare system with enormous waste and which has shown all its limits during the pandemic; from an education system in constant redefinition; by an inefficient judicial system which remains the only one to investigate the responsibility for accidents; by scarce investments for research and by an evident lack of safety culture.

In Italy, once again, this lack of safety culture is highlighted with the lack of a national agency on maritime safety, equipped with an adequate number of independent investigators and modern tools, which has the institutional task of ascertaining the technical and organizational causes of accidents. at sea, without having to wait for the times and results of the work of the magistrates who investigate to identify (and therefore punish) any culprits. In the aeronautical field, we managed to set up the National Flight Safety Agency (ANSV) with such delay, precisely to ascertain the causes of air accidents and adopt all the initiatives as soon as possible to prevent them from happening again.

The same need to keep the skills and inspiring principles of an independent agency well separated from those of the judicial police, according to international best practices , would be of mutual benefit for the maritime sector and for the judiciary (and therefore for the country), because the magistrates would make use of specialized technicians for their investigations, leaving these technicians also the possibility of collecting "protected" information in the sense that the identities of those who help the investigations with their own testimony would not be revealed (Just Culture).

The technical and non-partisan conclusions in this sense will be able to facilitate the work of the prosecutors who will have more reliable data on which to base their autonomous action. An approach that could contribute to the prevention and reduction of risk on any infrastructure, complex organization and mode of transport. Not a trivial thing.

In Search&Rescue situations, the crucial factor is undeniably the time between the moment the event occurs and the start of life-saving treatment. The ability to anticipate the type of medical treatment needed before the actual rescue and evacuation of the casualty has the immense benefit of saving time and ultimately saving lives.

Linking operational sites with situational awareness, integrated analysis, production, information collection management, targeting processes and timely decision making are critical to shaping and ensuring the success of search and rescue operations , reducing intervention times to a minimum.

In the national maritime domain, the intervention force which is called upon to operate with its maximum value in every Search & Rescue operation, offering coordinated and immediate medical assistance and advance treatment to the injured by the first responders before evacuation, key factors in saving lives, is the Coast Guard.

Are the excessive bureaucratization of the rules and of the Bodies to which this Armed Force is responsible limiting its operational readiness? Are there conflicts of competences, problems of coordination of maritime rescue, which affect the processing, decision making and operations management capabilities?

Are there political interferences that do not allow service members at every operational level to strategically plan and execute all missions, including Search & Rescue, in a synergistic, fast, safe and effective way in their own domain and in any military and civilian operational scenario?

The answers to these and other questions could be given in a very short time by an in-depth analysis carried out by an independent national maritime safety agency without having to wait for the results of the investigations and the very long times of parliamentary commissions or judicial processes, allowing the 'Agency to issue any recommendations and suggest corrective actions to be taken to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

Every effort should be aimed at avoiding accidents, protecting the lives and well-being of citizen-users and anyone who finds themselves in distress at sea, while the lack of a strategy, economic and professional resources necessary to promote the culture of safety inside and outside institutions, public bodies, companies and above all schools.

(2. end; the first part can be read here )

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/perche-in-italia-serve-lagenzia-nazionale-sulla-sicurezza-marittima/ on Sat, 04 Mar 2023 07:12:29 +0000.