# The Merchant Shipping (Accident Investigation)Regulations 1989, Regulation 2: Interpretation


(1) For the purposes of these Regulations and of section 33 of the Act, “accident” means any contingency whereby:—
(a) there is loss of life or major injury to any person on board, or any person is lost from, a ship or a ship’s boat; or
(b) a ship is lost or presumed to be lost, or is abandoned or materially damaged; or
(c) a ship strands or is in collision; or
(d) a ship is disabled; or
(e) any material damage is caused by a ship.
(2) In these Regulations
“Chief Inspector” means the Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents appointed by the Secretary of State under section 33(1) of the Act, and any deputy Chief Inspector;
“disabled” means not under command for a period of more than 12 hours, or for any lesser period if, as a result, the vessel needs assistance to reach port;
“grounding” means making involuntary contact with the ground, except for touching briefly so that no damage is caused, and “goes aground” shall be construed accordingly;
“hazardous incident” means any incident or event, not being an accident as defined in regulation 2(1), by which the safety of a ship or any person on board is imperilled, or as a result of which serious damage to any ship or structure or damage to the environment might be caused;
“inspector” means an inspector of marine accidents appointed by the Secretary of State and in the context of the investigation of a particular accident includes any person appointed to investigate that accident under regulation 6 below;
“Inspector’s Inquiry” means an investigation ordered under regulation 6(2);
“investigation” means any investigation carried out by an inspector, including but not limited to an Inspector’s Inquiry;
“major injury” has the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping (Safety Officials and Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences) Regulations 1982;
“pleasure craft” means a vessel primarily used for sport or recreation;
“serious casualty” means an accident to a ship causing loss of life, or total loss of a ship of more than 50 metres registered length;
“ship’s boat” includes a liferaft, painting punt and any boat normally carried by a ship;
“strands” means goes aground and cannot immediately re-float;
“United Kingdom ship” means a ship registered in the United Kingdom.
(3) Where a ship is managed by a person other than her owner (whether on behalf of the owner or some other person, or on his own behalf), a reference in these Regulations to the owner shall be construed as including a reference to that person.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1172/regulation/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/merchant-shipping-accident-investigationregulations-1989/regulation-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.