Too many people not paying attention... too many redundant safety systems ignored?
Anyone who has worked in a job, military or otherwise, maritime, aviation or otherwise, knows one thing for certain about alarms:
There is no alarm made that some people won’t ignore, or rationalize some way to ignore and/or disable it.
In aviation, they found that too many alarms cause aviators to disregard them, especially when there were more than one, so years ago they developed a “Master Caution” system, in which when an alarm sounds, the specific flashing light indicating the issue lights up and the alarm sounds, but it is connected to a Master Caution, a big square light prominently in view. In an emergency, they are trained to immediately hit the Master Caution light to disable it, and find out what the specific issue is.
If another system is problematic, the big Master Caution light turns on, another alarm sounds, and another specific button lights up there. They are supposed to hit the Master Caution to turn it off, and look for the new light.
I wonder if the same thing happens on the bridge of a ship. When the proximity alarm sounds, do they immediately disable it and investigate?
Or...what if they were having some kind of systems glitch where it was setting it off and they simply got into the habit of disabling it and ignoring it?
I admit this is all speculation. But people don’t like to be bothered by these annoying things...(I would put a sarcasm tag, but hope it isn’t needed)