Project title:
EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENTS OVER THE PA-SYSTEM IN PASSENGER VESSELS.

Project Leader:
Nicklas Timstedt, M Sc. Maritime Psychologist at Marine Profile AB.

Duration of project:
The project runs from 2001 until December 2004

This project is pursued with grants from the Swedish Government and with contribution from TT-Line, Destination Gotland and Marine Profile Sweden AB.

Abstract
The project aims at increasing the knowledge of how to formulate an emergency announcement over the PA-system in order to optimise crowd management in case of incidents and evacuation.

The project is divided into four phases:

Phase 1: An explorative study. Information is collected from passengers, crew and relevant literature.

Phase 2: Selection of one or more of the topics identified under phase 1. The selection criterion is the potential contribution to safety at sea.

Phase 3: Examination of the selected topics. The examination method is dependent on the topic; e.g. it can involve passenger evaluation of different announcements in terms of clarity, credibility etc.

Phase 4: Compiling and reporting of the results. The information will be published in shipping magazines, on web-sites and at courses.

This is expected to increase awareness of the importance of information to passengers in case of emergency. We also expect more structured and scientifically based emergency announcements in the future