AB sailor almost crushed while conducting unloading operations

The Norwegian Accident Investigation Board (AIB) published an accident report, which took place at Drammen port, Norway, on Monday, November 12 2018. An AB man was trying to repair a compact loader onboard vessel ‘Mercator’ when he was almost crushed between the showel and the wheelhouse.

How it happened

Specifically, an Able Seaman (AB) was trying to repair a compact loader while the vessel was at Drammen port for unloading operations. While working, the AB man almost got crushed between the showel and the wheelhouse, when he operated the lifting arms outside the wheelhouse.

During the unloading, the sailor had a new securing bolt and repaired the drawer to the loader, and later put the machine into operation. The discharge had been going on for two to three hours when the bolt loosened. In light of this, the sailor asked the chief to of staff to pick up a hammer. The chief was returning with the hammer for the sailor when he saw that the latter was still carrying the compact loader in the cargo area.

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The chief engineer went through the ship’s interior and down to the cargo area where he found the sailor clearly damaged, between the drawer and the machine. The compact loader motor was running. The chief engineer immediately notified the excavator driver who informed the captain over UHF.

Overall, the investigation resulted that the all the safety features of the loader were disconnected, while also the company had not conducted a risk assessment and hadn’t provided the users of the loader with safe operation procedures.

Specifically, the investigation concluded that:

1. The sailor was given the task of performing a repair without any preconditions to know the risk involved in the operation.
2. The risk of the repair was not assessed by the crew on board.
3. All safety systems on the compact loader were disconnected, which allowed the sailor to operate the machine outside the cab.
4. No risk assessment or established procedures for safe use, maintenance and control of the compact loader were performed.
5. Compact loader maintenance history was not documented.
6. No maintenance program or documentation of the necessary competence to carry out maintenance and control of the machine was prepared.