COLLISIONS IN ICE : A STUDY OF COLLISIONS INVOLVING SWEDISH ICEBREAKERS IN THE BALTIC SEA

Abstract: This study was conducted with the purpose of furthering the knowledge of collisionsinvolving Swedish icebreakers in the Baltic Sea. It strived to identify the causes and directeffects of this type of collision. It also sought to establish if regulations and operationalguidelines, governing Swedish icebreakers and icebreaker assistance, were sufficient and ifthey were being adhered to.The method used to accomplish this was a qualitative literature study of all data regardingSwedish icebreaker collisions from the archives of the Swedish Maritime Administration andthe Swedish Transport Agency. Several accident investigation authorities from around theworld assisted in developing a method for processing the raw data.Having processed and examined the data the prevalence of different causes contributing to thecollisions could be established. All collisions occurred during icebreaker assistance. It wasfound that the all encompassing cause of the collisions was the difficulties of evaluating theice conditions and the behavior that difficult ice conditions necessitated the vessels to adopt.It was further made clear that the direct effects for the vessels, their crew and the environmentwere of limited severity. It was also concluded that the regulations and operational guidelinesgoverning Swedish icebreaker assistance, were generally being adhered to, and weresatisfactory in enabling a sufficiently safe and effective icebreaker assistance service.