VESSEL DAMAGE SEVERITY OF TANKER ACCIDENTS.

Are there effective policies, other than vessel design (which is addressed by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990) for reducing the vessel damage severity (and the subsequent oil spillage) of tanker accidents? This paper addresses this question by investigating determinants of accident severity. The results suggest that effective policies, other than vessel design, may not exist for tanker collision accidents, but do exist for accidents which involve grounding and/or materials/equipment failure. For grounding accidents, these policies are to: increase the regulation and/or regulation enforcement of foreign flag tankers, and increase the regulation enforcement of tankers when vessel repair prices and oil prices are relatively low. For material/equipment failure accidents, these policies are to: increase the regulation and/or regulation enforcement of older tankers, and require greater use of licensed manned operators.