Safety flashes: Summary of 2016

This is a brief summary of the incidents reported during 2016, highlighting some of the trends and points worthy of note. During 2016, IMCA published 148 incidents in 35 safety flashes. This is outstanding – IMCA members are to be thanked for sharing more incidents during 2016 than in any previous year.

One of the challenges we faced in 2016 was maintaining the highest levels of impact and learning value of safety flash incidents, at a time when we were publishing a safety flash almost every week. For this reason, we have not published every incident reported to us – we have omitted to publish 25 reported incidents. In general, we have not passed on incidents which were considered to have no new or relevant lessons for members.

We have continued, so far has been reasonably practicable (taking into account the need to publish incidents in a timely way), to publish safety flashes with incidents grouped together with a broad theme or focus.

Two thirds of the events received and published come from IMCA contractor, supplier and corresponding members. The remainder come from government bodies, regulators and trade associations, including the Marine Safety Forum (MSF). 13% of 2016 IMCA safety incidents were reported first by the MSF. IMCA works closely with other industry bodies and regulators to ensure that appropriate incidents are passed on and lessons learned are circulated to members.

42 IMCA members reported incidents. Seven members reported more than one incident. IMCA has nearly 1000 members. We continue to encourage all IMCA members to contribute incidents to the IMCA safety flash system. This is an important way to influence industry safety policy by actively taking part.

Fatalities

• IMCA SF 02/16 – Incident 1 – Worker killed when struck by a load on a moving crane
• IMCA SF 02/16 – Incident 2 – Fatal fall during cargo loading operations
• IMCA SF 06/16 – Incident 1 – Malaria fatality
• IMCA SF 08/16 – Incident 1 – Fatality: Stored pressure release
• IMCA SF 11/16 – Incident 1 – Fatality: Crew member struck by forklift during quayside operations*
• IMCA SF 20/16 – Incident 3 – Fatal diver incident due to uncontrolled differential pressure
• IMCA SF 22/16 – Incident 1 – Confined space fatality – Sharp Lady
• IMCA SF 24/16 – Incident 1 – Fatal engine room fire on suction dredger Arco Avon
• IMCA SF 30/16 – Incident 1 – Fatal fall from tug Svitzer Moira
• IMCA SF 33/16 – Incident 4 – Fatalities – pipe fell from skids
• IMCA SF 34/16 – Incident 4 – Fatal fall from height

* NB: Only one of these fatalities was reported by an IMCA member. The remainder were reported by trade associations, regulatory and/or safety bodies, or clients. Key issues for the above incidents are highlighted in bold.

LTIs

• IMCA SF 02/16 – Incident 4 – Lost time injury (LTI): Finger injury – watertight sliding door
• IMCA SF 03/16 – Incident 1 – Lost time injury (LTI): Stored pressure release – Crewman lost an eye
• IMCA SF 05/16 – Incident 3 – Slip/trip resulting in lost time injury (LTI)
• IMCA SF 08/16 – Incident 2 – Lost time injury (LTI): Finger injury whilst working in engine room
• IMCA SF 12/16 – Incident 2 – Lost time injury (LTI): Serious hand injury during high pressure washing operations
• IMCA SF 19/16 – Incident 2 – Lost time injury (LTI): Loss of end of thumb
• IMCA SF 22/16 – Incident 5 – Crewman badly scalded during tank cleaning
• IMCA SF 28/16 – Incident 2 – Line of fire LTI: Finger injury during lifting operations
• IMCA SF 28/16 – Incident 3 – Serious finger injury during valve installation
• IMCA SF 30/16 – Incident 2 – LTI: Eye injury following incident with microwaved food
• IMCA SF 30/16 – Incident 3 – Scalding injury to crew member

Themes that emerge from a glance at these titles are, hand/finger injuries (6), scalding (3 – the microwaved food injury was a scald), and two eye injuries. All but one of these LTIs were reported by IMCA members.

In some incidents reported, ambiguous language and lack of information mean that it is not absolutely clear that an actual LTI occurred (as distinct from a first aid case or medical treatment case). These incidents are not included in this list.

Causal factors in reports from IMCA members

NB: only incidents reported by IMCA members are included in this breakdown of causal factors. There is some overlap as incidents can have multiple causal factors attached to them:

• Equipment failure or corrosion 17%;
• Dropped objects 14%;
• Diving-related incidents 13%;
• Seamanship and mooring 13%;
• Line of fire/finger/hand injuries 9%;
• Stored energy or stored pressure 8%.