Cruise Ship Crash May Have Been Forseeable

Jan. 16, 2012 - PRLog -- The questions surrounding last week’s Costa Concordia Italian cruise liner crash may not be so much about why the tragedy occurred but rather, who is responsible.  As details continue to emerge, investigators are pointing to the Captain’s “bad judgment” and his supposed decision to veer off course so he could wave at a friend on shore. When companies use behavioral analytics to enhance workplace safety, they often find that more introverted people are less likely to do the things that cause accidents. They are more focused on the technical side of the job and less influenced by the social pressures around them. In this case, it appears the captain’s social drive overwhelmed his technical navigation resulting in a crash that took several lives.

Behavioral analytics can be used to assess a population of people and identify those who are more likely to behave in a particular way. The Predictive Index assessment, a popular behavioral analysis tool, has been used by many companies, including major shipping and transportation lines, to select captains, drivers and other critical staff. These companies see a significant reduction in accidents among the population that fit the ideal behavioral style.

While it is impossible to say for sure what happened in this tragic situation, the behavioral style of the captain should be one of the primary factors considered by the experts when assessing this accident.

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