In its latest Safety Flashes for May, IMCA presents an incident of a slip onboard that resulted in injury. The incident highlighted the importance of identifying and marking all the potentially hazardous spots onboard vessels, so that these kind of accidents to be prevented.
The incident
A crewman slipped on a step grating and twisted his ankle. The incident happened as he stepped through a hatch on his way to a job. Initially he did not feel any pain, so he did not report the incident and continued work. However, as time passed, the pain increased and, after three hours, he reported the event to the officer on watch (OOW).
The OOW contacted the client’s medical service, who provided an ambulance and evacuated the injured person from the vessel to the clinic. The injured person was assessed at the clinic in the middle of the night, and the vessel informed the office the next morning. Investigation highlighted the fact that client’s medics reported the incident to the company before the vessel.
Probable causes
-With regard to reporting:
- The injured person did not follow company procedures and immediately report the incident to the OOW
- The vessel management did not inform the designated person ashore when the incident occurred – again, not following company procedures;
-With regard to the slip/trip:
- Lack of hazard identification will have been a contributing factor
- The incident is still under investigation.
Lessons learned
–>Discuss the lessons learned with all crew members, particularly the requirement to report incidents immediately;
–>Consider efforts to identify the need to mark steps, especially when there is no colour contrast;
The company has a permanent “Edges and Ledges” campaign to identify all edges and ledges and mark all hazards:
