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Medical treatment: Person fell down unprotected hatch

The MSF has published safety alert number 16-17 regarding an incident in which a shore-side foreman walked into the “safe haven” area of a supply vessel and stepped into an open manhole. Whilst he managed to catch himself and prevent a free fall of 5m into the tank, he nonetheless suffered a laceration on his shin requiring 3 stitches and bruising to the forearm.

The MSF noted the following causes:

  • Lack of barriers to open manholes;
  • Several different activities all occurring at once;
  • Lack of coordination of those simultaneous activities.

The following corrective actions were taken:

  • Covering of manholes with gratings during work;
  • Ensuring that ongoing work is coordinated between the work parties in the same area, through toolbox talks.

The full report can be found at marinesafetyforum.org/images/msf-safety-alert-16.17.pdf

Members may wish to refer to the following incidents (search words: hatch, open):

Safety Event

Published: 12 October 2016
Download: IMCA SF 27/16

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