International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG 1972)
A 1972 IMO convention, in force since 1977, setting the rules of the road: lookout, safe speed, crossing, restricted visibility, lights and signals. Judges read it to apportion liability for a collision.
On June 17, 2017, the container ship ACX Crystal and the US destroyer USS Fitzgerald collide at night off Japan: seven sailors die. American and Japanese reports establish a series of breaches of the rules of the road, insufficient lookout, unsuitable speed, no signal or avoiding maneuver. Those rules are the COLREG, the convention of the International Maritime Organization of October 20, 1972, in force since July 15, 1977. Thirty-eight rules and four annexes organize the meeting of ships: permanent lookout (Rule 5), safe speed (Rule 6), risk of collision (Rule 7), action to avoid (Rule 8), crossing situation (Rule 15), give-way and stand-on vessels (Rules 16 and 17), restricted visibility (Rule 19), lights and shapes, sound signals. The COLREG applies on the high seas and in connected waters navigable by seagoing vessels. For insurance, it is the reference when fault for a collision is shared: the collision clauses in hull policies make the insurer liable for the part of the damage caused by the insured to another ship, and the court fixes that part by applying the rules. An established breach weighs heavily in the proportion.
Textbook case. Collision between a bulk carrier and a container ship in restricted visibility, damage of USD 30M to the container ship and USD 12M to the bulk carrier. The court finds that the bulk carrier did not keep an adequate radar lookout and was sailing at excessive speed (Rules 5, 6 and 19), at 70% liability; the container ship maneuvered badly at the last minute, 30%. The bulk carrier owes 70% of 30 minus 30% of 12, or a balance of USD 17.4M. Its hull insurer settles the collision share under the collision clause.
COLREG, COLREGs, COLREG 1972, rules of the road at sea, International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, Collision Regulations
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