A safety study released on 13 September by the NTSB details 14 conclusions and 21 recommendations aimed at further reducing the risk of collisions, allisions, and groundings involving vessels operating within US Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service areas.

The study, An Assessment of the Effectiveness of the U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service System (NTSB/SS-16/01), abstract here, focused on the performance of the Coast Guard’s VTS system, currently comprised of 12 VTS centres. The need for the study was driven by the investigation of six major commercial vessel accidents since the Coast Guard’s 2009 implementation of its Vessel Traffic Service National Standard Operating Procedures Manual.