The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) published on 15 May its annual Safety Statistics Report, revealing that ‘line of fire’ incidents remained the leading cause of lost time injuries (LTIs) among its Members in 2024, accounting for more than half (52%) of such injuries.
The research found that the total lost-time injury rate (LTIR) across its contributing Members’ onshore and offshore operations remained unchanged at 0.3 incidents per million hours worked. This follows steady improvements since 2010, when the LTIR was more than twice as high as recorded in 2024.
The six main causes of LTIs reported were:
- 52% line of fire
- 22% slips and trips
- 9% muscle stress
- 8% fall from height
- 6% stored energy release
- 3% dropped objects
Meanwhile, the total recordable injuries rate (TRIR) rose slightly (from 1.07 to 1.1 injuries per million hours worked), a pattern seen across the energy industry, although IMCA contractor Members saw a small improvement in the total recordable injury rate recorded for offshore from 1.47 injuries per million hours worked in 2023, to 1.38 in 2024.
Furthermore, just over half (52%) of lost time injuries reported were ‘line of fire’ related injuries. Slips and trips were the second main cause of LTIs, accounting for 22% of the total in 2024.
The key question for industry safety professionals now is ‘how do we drive down incident rates still further?’. Line of fire incidents will become a key focus for us in the year ahead, and we look forward to working closely with our Members and partner organisations to achieve genuine progress in this area.
…said Iain Grainer, CEO, IMCA.
The fatal accident rate (FAR) halved from 0.63 fatalities per 100 million hours worked in 2023, to 0.3 fatalities in 2024. For offshore workers, the rate fell from 0.41 in 2023 to 0.18 in 2024 – the lowest fatality rate ever recorded by IMCA contractor Members.
This year’s data was supplied by 198 of IMCA’s contractor Members, who between them submitted a record 1,015,000 hours of data.
The annual IMCA safety statistics report provides essential input to how our sector is performing. Over the years the general downward trend in recordable incident frequencies has been encouraging and this year I’m pleased that we have had a record high number of almost 200 Member companies contributing their statistics.
…said Jim Cullen, Technical Director, IMCA.
