The Nautical Institute presents an incident where a member of the shore personnel working on deck suffered a minor injury from a small piece of wood that fell from height, while disconnecting the cargo hose on a tanker with the ship’s crane.
The incident
The wooden piece was sheathing placed around the boom’s ’parking crutch’ to avoid metal-to-metal contact. Over time, the securing arrangement for the sheathing had come loose, and when the boom was lifted, it slipped from position and fell, striking the shore crew. The victim was given first aid and was in good medical condition thereafter. The company investigation found, among other things, that the monthly maintenance of the crane was not carried out as per the Planned Maintenance System (PMS). Visual inspection of the sheathing would likely have identified the wear and probably avoided the accident.
Lessons learned
- Monthly PMS inspections are established for a reason and should be carried out with due diligence and ‘fresh eyes’ at each repetition.
- In this instance, no specific PMS task was assigned to checking the condition of the wood sheathing. When new hazards are discovered, risks can be reduced by creating a specific PMS task for the object of the hazard.
