Malacca Case Study 1974-1994

A previous study http://www1.american.edu/TED/malacca.htm, focused on the environmental aspects/risks in the Malacca strait contains some information on the volume of traffic and the incident rates in the Malacca strait.

Some 600 ships use the Malacca Strait daily, ranging from traditional sailing ships, pleasure crafts and fishing vessels whose courses are unpredictable; large tankers are confined to the deep water routes which meanders through the Strait; bulk carriers and tankers in ballast with sluggish steering capability sometimes using the deep water route; most of the time hugging the coastline, container ships with high cruising speed; hard pressed to arrive at their destined terminals just in time; smaller petroleum, chemical and gas tankers feeding depots around the region from the main refineries, tow-boats and barges requiring plenty of sea-room to maneuver, passenger ferries crossing the Strait and cruises to nowhere and the rest. (Source:Capt. Raja Malik Kamaruzaman,1999)...

...Coupled with the rush hour traffic of ships, from 1978 to 1994, a total of 476 accidents, including oil spills were reported. That is an average of 30 incidents per year.( Gunalan, 1999). The number of oil tankers plying the Straits increased four folds between 1979 and 1997, which suggest a persistent risk of oil spill.

(Source: LMIS)

The study contains the figure below, indicating that incident rate reduced dramatically from 1993 onwards.

Please consult the study report itself http://www1.american.edu/TED/malacca.htm for further details.