A recent IMCA Safety Flash focuses on an incident in which an AB got his left index finger trapped between a bitt and a mooring rope, resulting in a broken finger and 45 days off work, to provide lessons learned.
The incident
The incident occurred during un-mooring at the end of a ship-to-ship refuelling operation.
What went wrong
- There was no assessment of the PPE worn by the crew on this job. The impact gloves worn by the AB were in poor condition.
- There was a soft eye at the end of the mooring rope, but no small rope extension was used to remove the soft eye from the bitt.
- The crew on the other vessel did not allow sufficient slack on the mooring rope.
- There was no management oversight or monitoring of inexperienced or “short service” personnel.
Lessons learned
- Ensure short service personnel (persons who are not yet experienced on any given worksite or vessel) are appropriately supervised.
- Our member started to use small rope extensions on the soft eyes so as to avoid exposing fingers and hands to risk.
- Ensure that sufficient slack is allowed when handling mooring ropes.
