The purpose of this study is to keep the safety of the car ferry passengers and vessels by investigating and analyzing vessel safety management systems in Korea and China. To this end, we investigated Korea-China car ferries and the current status and causes of global marine accidents corresponding to the sizes of the vessels from Korea and China. Furthermore, we investigated car ferries’ crew management and safety management. As a result of the analysis of the ferry accident, the causes of human error and ship’s age were the greatest, but the ship’s companies showed a negative stance regarding the age restriction. It seems that it is necessary to utilize the near-miss accident reporting system and differentiate the management of ship’s aging. Also, it was analyzed that both the ship company and the crew of the ship need to strengthen their awareness of safety management.

• Young-Soo Park(Division of Maritime Transportation Science, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan 49112, Korea , 051-410-5085)
• Hea-Dong Jeon(Department of Ship Operation, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan 49112, Korea) Corresponding author
• Yong-Sik Oh(Division of International Trade and Economics, Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan 49112, Korea)
• Sang-Won Park(Graduate School of Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Busan 49112, Korea)