The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) informed that despite a slight decrease in the number of accidents in 2018, there was an increase in the number of fatalities. Specifically, ten people died in 2018, in comparison to seven in 2017. Seven of the fatalities in 2018 took place on fishing vessels.
About half (53%) of fatal accidents over the last five years, are attributed to personal accidents. Namely, falls to the sea and on board, along with shocks/crushing injuries are the main cause. In the case of personal injuries, 226 injuries were registered in 2018, compared to 231 in 2017.
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The remaining of the fatalities are because of ship accidents, with ships accidents, collisions, capsizing and grounding, being the main causes over the last five years.
As for ship accidents, NMA says that the figures are relatively stable in the last five years, with the Directorate having registered 1241 ship accidents. In 2018, 240 ship accidents were registered, of which:
- 40% were ground shocks;
- 14% contact injuries;
- 12% fire incidents;
- 11% environmental damage;
- The remaining 23% were distributed over other accident categories.
These fatalities also highlight the dangers of working in the fishing industry, as Acting Maritime Director Lars Alvestad notes. He added that this situation is something that NMA takes seriously and will now focus on both supervision and attitude campaigns.
On the bright side, a decent safety culture in the industry has contributed to the figures for ship accidents not increasing too much.
On the one hand, we had hoped that the figures would go down, but at the same time we know that the demanding conditions we have along the coast will also make it difficult to avoid accidents, so it is important that this is part of the risk assessment the individual does before the voyage and the work starts on board
Mr. Alvestad emphasized.
Finally, during 2018, the Norwegian Maritime Directorate recorded 33 accidents regarding environmental damages. These incidents mostly relate to small spills of 5-200 liters of oil or diesel. As far as larger spills are concerned, 217 tonnes of refined oil products were reported spilled, due to damage from contact, while another example was the discharge of 10,000 liters of diesel after a collision.
