Tag: injury onboard

The Jones Act protects injured crewmembers and maritime workers injured Working on offshore oil rigs, commercial vessels and shipping ports can be grueling and thankless work. Seamen consistently work long hours and often in dangerous conditions. Despite the inherent dangers seamen face, employers still have a responsibility to maintain safe working environments, properly train workers, and maintain seaworthy vessels.If an employer fails to do these things, an employee suffers an injury due to such negligence, he or she can seek compensation under the Jones Act, a law passed by Congress to protect injured crewmembers and maritime workers injured in the course of their employment. The Act is an extension of the Federal Employees Liability Act, a law that protects injured railroad workers. Congress recognized that seamen could be injured at sea, and on land (in harbors and ports).Because of this, a crewmember's Jones Act rights are conditioned by the contractual agreement of employment for serving aboard a vessel, not where the injury occurred. This means the worker's rights continue while onshore so long as the employee is acting within the course of employment. Therefore, if a crewmember is injured on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico or securing ...

On board a passenger ship in Melbourne The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) issued the report of its investigation into a serious crew member injury on board a passenger/ro-ro ship in Melbourne on 17 September 2011.A rating moved two catwalk gratings in the engineroom in preparation for relocating a large fan.The electrical engineer told him to place a safety barrier around the opening.The electrical engineer then attempted to push one of the gratings back into place, but fell through the opening, incurring serious injury.Click here to view the reportSource: ATSB

One was killed and seven were injured One fisherman was missing and seven others injured after a ferry rammed their boat before dawn Friday off Maasim town in the southern Philippine province of Sarangani, police said.Police said the mishap occurred at around 1 a.m. while the Superferry was sailing for Manila. The other crew members rushed to hospital. Other reports said the fishermen were fixing their engine near the port when the ferry rammed their trawler.The vessel did not stop despite the mishap and continued sailing leaving the behind the trawler in total wreck and its crew on their own. The ship's owner, Aboitiz SuperFerry, did not give any statement about the mishap.Source: Mindanao Examiner

He was denied medical treatment for several days A seaman from South Carolina is suing Liberty Maritime over injuries sustained onboard one of the US shipowners pure car carriers.James Batista, a chief steward onboard the 6,000-car Liberty Pride (built 2009), claims he was denied medical treatment for several days in October 2009 after notifying his superiors of a painful neck wound.According to court documents, Batista was forced to undergo emergency surgery for an infection upon arrival onshore.The seamans luck went from bad to worse nearly one year later when a desk chair onboard the vessel snapped at the seat, which caused him to fall and hit his head on the desk and land on his back, hand and shoulder, the complaint contends.In the filing, New York-based personal injury attorney Stephen Krawitz wrote: The chair was not fit for its intended use. Other chairs like it had previously been broken and failed in a similar manner.Batista's lawyers claim the vessel was unseaworthy as a matter of law because it is undisputed that the chair was defective at the time the alleged incident occurred.He has requested a trial by jury in which he would seek judgement against Liberty Maritime for damages related ...

A cut on his right hand A deckhand was engaged in chipping and painting assorted fittings on deck. While working on a particularly badly corroded access trunk coaming, he decided to rig a temporary newspaper screen across its opening to prevent rust particles from falling into the space below.As he was trying to fix the screen in place with adhesive tape, the jagged lip of the coaming inflicted a cut on his right hand.First aid was administered on board before the deckhand was taken to see a doctor ashore, who dressed the wound and allowed him to return to the vessel.NotesIt is not advisable to chip the upper edge of a coaming or the compression bar of a hatch cover with a manual hammer, as the consequent indentations will result in improper sealing and permit water ingress. If grit blasting is not practical, then powered needle guns, rotary wirebrush wheels or sanding discs may be used.Source: Mars/Nautical Institute