Marine Safety Forum descirbes an incident where during discharge operations onboard cargo ship, it was observed a dropped object.
The case
A 3000 DWT cargo ship loaded with cargo for the renewables sector was being discharged using a mobile shore crane when a sea fastening bracket weighing about 3 kgs fell out of a forklift pocket from a generator that was being off loaded and landed onto a trailer on the quayside.
The vessel was loaded with some 40 heavy lift items, each secured to a steel lifting frame with forklift pockets, each weighing about 80 tonnes, these had all been secured with 8 sea fastenings brackets per lift. The cargo was stowed over 3 decks and the sea fastenings were being burnt off by the ships’ crew and diligently swept up as each hold was discharged.
During discharge of the lower tween deck a sea fastening was observed to fall from a forklift pocket. The following day another bracket was observed inside a forklift pocket.
A total of 320 brackets had been burnt off. The 2 missed ones could have resulted in a fatality as shown on the “Drops Calculator” chart below.
Findings
- Stevedores / ships crew were unaware of the requirement to carry out a dropped object sweep of each lift with an emphasis on forklift pockets
- Lighting in the lower tween deck was poor
Lessons learned
- The load was landed and secured on the trailer, the job was stopped and a “time out” was taken for a safety discussion with the on-board stevedores and ships’ crew to remind them to do a dropped object sweep of each lift.
- At the Toolbox Talk at the strat of work the next morning the Stevedores and vessels Chief Officer were reminded to carry out a dropped object sweep for each lift including checking of forklift pockets.