Safety Alert: Gangway fell from quay

 

On 02 October 2024, the gangway of a container vessel detached from the quayside injuring five lashers. Four of the injuries were reportable as over-seven-day injuries, while one was classified as minor.

What happened:

Movement of the vessel on the tidal berth resulted in the ship’s gangway resting partially over the quayside ladder void. As the five lashers were ascending the gangway, the gangway moved from the quay wall, swinging back to the side of the vessel and dropping approximately 2-3 meters below the quay wall (images below).
Consequently, the five lashers fell, one of the lashers at the bottom of the gangway falling into the water, another being caught in the gangway netting and the other three falling onto the gangway itself. The submerged lasher was recovered from the water via the quayside ladder, first aiders attended the scene, three lashers were sent to hospital and two sent home.

Key findings:

• Tidal movement of the vessel caused the gangway to move position, and the gangway roller encroached on the ladder void, causing it to be less stable.
• Vessel gangway procedure requiring supervision at all times, was not followed. At the time of incident, the gangway hoist wires were slack enough to for the gangway to drop approximately three meters.
• Markings on the quayside, around the ladder were faded and of insufficient colour and size to raise awareness of potential quayside hazard.
• The IP was not wearing his chinstrap when going up the gangway resulting in losing his helmet during the fall into the water, where he narrowly missed striking the quayside fender.
• A large painted sign showing the maximum load of the gangway was faded.
• There was no life buoy present at the lower part of the gangway supplied by the vessel as per the approved code of practice.

Considerations for members:

Members may wish to consider the following actions:
• Position vessel gangways away from ladder voids.
• Review operations to ensure that written procedures are followed in practice.
• All employees must wear PPE correctly.
• All signs on the vessel and on the gangway must clear in providing information regarding maximum load, capacity and potential hazards.
• Carry out pre-work gangway and vessel checks before vessel operations commence and at suitable intervals throughout.
• Encourage the use of stop work authorities if unsafe situations are observed.
• Review markings for quayside hazards such as ladder voids to ensure they are suitable.

 

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ICHCA International is committed to helping industry to learn lessons fast, learn them once and make sure that they stay learnt. This information is intended to provide all organisations in the cargo supply chain with the opportunity to consider the events and to review and adapt their own health and safety control measures to proactively prevent future incidents.

We are grateful to the Port Skills & Safety and DP World Southampton for providing details and for raising awareness. We acknowledge their commitment to sharing learning to benefit others. If you have similar operations, please share this information with managers, operatives and any potentially affected third parties as appropriate. Please also review any of your relevant operations for similar hazardous conditions, risks, and controls. Learning content like this is highly valuable as it is based on real-world experience. We encourage everyone with publishable information about incidents to send it to us, so that we can raise awareness across the whole industry. Please contact us at secretariat@ichca.com; sharing your insight could save a life or prevent injury.

For previous Safety Alerts follow the link: https://ichca.com/safety-alerts