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Lost time injury (LTI) – finger laceration due to use of knife

What happened?

A crew member was working with a knife when his knife suddenly slipped and sliced a layer of skin off his index finger and part of the nail off the next finger on his left hand.

Medical treatment was received on return to port, and two weeks off work were necessary to recover from the injury.

What went wrong? What were the causes?

  • The crew member was cutting towards his free hand;
  • He was wearing ANSI Level 4 cut resistant gloves at the time;
  • The cause was incorrect cutting technique.

What lessons were learnt? What actions were taken?

Always keep your free hand (and other body parts) away from the line of the cut. Gloves provide sufficient protection for regular cuts and grazes, however will not prevent a serious knife wound.

The UK HSE produce a handy leaflet on how to reduce hand knife injuries, which can be found on their website.

Members may wish to review the following incident:

Safety Event

Published: 21 September 2017
Download: IMCA SF 23/17

Relevant life-saving rules:
IMCA Safety Flashes
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IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of all. The effectiveness of the IMCA Safety Flash system depends on Members sharing information and so avoiding repeat incidents. Please consider adding safetyreports@imca-int.com to your internal distribution list for safety alerts or manually submitting information on incidents you consider may be relevant. All information is anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate.

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