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HFE Issues re an Automated Marine Navigation System

The field of Forensic Human Factors is both challenging and interesting. It offers a chance for Ergonomics / Human Factors Professionals to actively participate in the legal process as Expert Witnesses, and to help the "Finders of Fact" (i.e., the judge and/or jury) better understand and appreciate relevant human factors principles, and to see how they may apply within a given lawsuit. HFES RMC members Ed Karnes and Dave Lenorovitz were involved as Expert Witness / Human Factors Consultant in a case involving a boating accident, wherein claims were made that a Marine Auto-Pilot device malfunctioned and caused a boat to mysteriously change course and crash into an off-shore oil drilling platform. The boat sank, and almost of the people on board were injured -- some quite seriously. The specific claims were that the device was defectively designed, improperly installed, inadequately updated and maintained, and contained "hidden hazards" about which its users were not properly warned. This presentation (also given at last year's Applied Ergonomics International Conference) will very briefly review the facts of the case, and then focus on the human factors areas that were identified and discussed (e.g., the importance of reading and following instructions and warnings, operator perception/reaction times, negative transfer-of-training effects, perseveration of ineffective behavior in an emergency situation, inappropriate user mental models, attenional tunneling (a la Chris Wickens), interactive device display / control panel design challenges, and critical task environment parameters). Attendees will be afforded an opportunity to better appreciate how Human Factors considerations can come into play within the context of the litigation process.

© June 2003– 29 July, 2003 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Rocky Mountain Chapter.

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