Hong Kong Merchant Shipping Information Note
The Assistant Electrical Officer on board a Hong Kong registered vessel was killed by thecage of the elevator when he was carrying out inspection alone on the cage top. The Hong Kong Marine Department has issued Information Note to draw the attention of the ship owners, ship managers, ship operators,masters, officers and crew on the lessons learnt from the accident.
The Incident
The Hong Kong registered vessel was anchored while waiting for berth. In themorning on the date of the accident, the Assistant Electrical Officer (AEO) and the FourthEngineer were assigned by the Second Engineer to check the cause of abnormal noise in the shipelevator, among other work during the day including assist launching drills of the port andstarboard lifeboats.
After lunch break, they placed their informal repair notices on every elevator door andstarted to check the elevator by operating it manually at the cage top. The work was abortedwithout any findings after approximately 15 minutes as they had to proceed to the port lifeboatstation for the boat drill. After the drill, only the AEO returned back to the elevator to continuechecking the machine as the Fourth Engineer was occupied with other work from the drill.Unfortunately, the AEO was soon found stuck in the gap between the cage and the bulkhead.He was rescued out of the cage but was certified dead later.
The investigation into the accident revealed that the AEO, who was working alone andwithout seeking for help, might have changed-over the MANUAL/AUTO switch located at thecage top to AUTO hoping that someone would press the call buttons from other decks to let theelevator move at a normal speed to expedite the checking process for the abnormal noise. Atthe time of the accident, he was at the front side of the cage. With the sudden move of theelevator, he lost his balance and fell into the gap between the cage and the bulkhead. He wasdragged up until the cage finally stopped in between A-deck and B-deck.
The main contributing factors to the accident are the Safety Measures for crew to workon ship elevator issued by the company were not strictly followed and that the Safety Measureswere prepared without sufficiently appraising the associated risks.
Lessons Learnt
To avoid recurrence of similar accident, it is important that all risks associated withworking on ship elevator should be fully assessed and the relevant procedures be reviewedregularly. All ship’s personnel engaged in the work should strictly follow the safety procedures.
The attention of ship owners, ship managers, ship operators, masters and officers andcrew is drawn to the lessons learnt above.