Assessment of accident theories for major accidents focusing on the MV SEWOL disaster: Similarities, differences, and discussion for a combined approach

On 16th April 2014, the MV SEWOL capsized in South Korea, and 304 persons died or went missing. This article describes the accident and finds causes from four different theoretical points of view: the energy-barrier model, Turner’s man-made disasters model, Rasmussen’s conflicting objectives perspective, and high reliability organizations theory. The results show that the theories together point out a total of 23 different causes to the accident. Different causes are identified from different theories and they complement each other. Finally, this article discusses a possible combination of the perspectives for improving both accident investigation and accident prevention.