Fall incidents is the defined focus area for the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) for 2023. According to NMA, 37% of all fatalities at sea in the last five years are fall-related. Nearly 600 people have been injured.
NMA reported that in the last 5 years, including 2022, there have been 14 fall-related deaths.
These incidents have been related to falls on board, falls overboard or falls on quay in connection with mooring or embarking.
A total of 561 people have been injured in a fall, and 349 of these were on sick-leave for more than 3 days.
To prevent this type of injuries, the NMA has made a checklist for fall incidents.
It will be very useful to go through this checklist on all vessels. We encourage all shipping companies and masters to go through the checklist early in 2023
explore more at nma’s checklist
Challenging shipping companies and masters
#1 Shipping company:
Encourage (require) masters to read through the information on this website and go through the digital checklist. The list shouls be saved and submitted and reported to the shipping company.
#2 Master:
- Use a safefty meeting or similar.
- Read through all “lessons learned” texts and watch the films. Discuss internally, and take a tour of your vessel to identify places and work operations with a risk of fall incidents.
- Through discussions, come up with any new or improved measures for the risk areas in the articles and films.
- Complete the digital checklist for fall incidents. The list should be saved and submitted and reported to the shipping company. Please put any comments and note measures on the items where something has been identified, or where measures are required.
