Dutch Safety Board
The Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid: its maritime remit as a flag State investigator, its independence, and how its reports fit the Casualty Investigation Code.
The Dutch Safety Board, the Onderzoeksraad voor Veiligheid, is the independent body that investigates accidents in the Netherlands and on Netherlands-flagged ships. Its maritime investigations are safety investigations rather than proceedings to apportion blame, and it publishes its findings and recommendations openly.
The full article will cover its remit, its independence from the maritime administration, the categories of occurrence it investigates and the categories it declines, and how its work sits inside the framework of the Casualty Investigation Code.
It will also cover its maritime output of interest to a practitioner, including its 2015 investigation into carbon monoxide in the bow thruster room of a wood pellet carrier, which is one of the few flag State reports on enclosed-space off-gassing casualties.