Safety Alert: Unprotected Edges

 

This alert, with thanks to the Swedish Club, reports on a fatal fall into a ship’s hold.

The casualty was undertaking an inspection of the cargo in the hold.  To do this more effectively they lifted a safety barrier and moved closer to the edge of the partially opened hatch.  The conclusion is that they slipped on ice and fell into the hold.

 

There were a number of safety measures in place, guardrails were fitted, the vessel’s SMS addressed the risks of falling into an open hold and working on deck under icy conditions. The casualty had on all of the expected PPE.  However, the particular risks from walking on a partially open hatch cover had not been considered.  There were no temporary guardrails on board the vessel that could be fitted to hatch covers and it was not considered possible to secure a fall prevention harness.

This case emphasises that fall prevention needs to be dynamically and continuously managed on vessels and in other parts of the port or terminal where such risks exist.  Individual safety components need to be considered as part of a whole.  Proactively thinking through how they interact and where gaps might exist is a key part of creating a robust SMS.

For the full Safety Alert, Click Here

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.

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 Swedish Club  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.