Crush incident involving a falling hatch cover on general cargo vessel SMN Explorer with loss of 1 life

Location: Alexandra Dock, King's Lynn, England.

• From: Marine Accident Investigation Branch
• Published: 13 December 2018

• Vessel type: Merchant vessel 100 gross tons or over
• Report type: Investigation report
• Date of occurrence: 1 February 2018

Accident Investigation Report 21/2018

Investigation report into marine accident including what happened, safety lessons learned and recommendations:

Summary

A crewman from the Liberian registered general cargo vessel, SMN Explorer, died when he was crushed by a falling hatch cover. The crewman was part of a working party stowing cargo slings used for the discharge of the ship바카라 사이트檚 cargo. The accident occurred when the crewman climbed up the inside of the open hatch cover after its locking pins had been removed.

Safety issues

• the crewman walked under, and climbed up an unsecured hatch cover
• the accident occurred because the routine deck operation was not adequately planned or supervised
• the vessel바카라 사이트檚 safety management system was immature; some routine deck operations had not been risk assessed and safe systems of work had not been developed
• the vessel바카라 사이트檚 lifting appliances had not been properly maintained
• a weak safety culture was evident on board SMN Explorer

Recommendations

Recommendations (2018/134, 2018/135 and 2018/136) have been made to the vessel바카라 사이트檚 managers to improve the system of work for closing SMN Explorer바카라 사이트檚 foredeck hatch; and, across its managed fleet, take steps both to improve the safety culture on board and, specifically, improve the maintenance management of lifting appliances.

Published 13 December 2018