Lost time injury (LTI): Hand severed during mooring operations

An incident has come to IMCA’s attention in which a crewman lost his right hand during mooring operations. The incident occurred when a service vessel was moving floating hoses away from an incoming tanker (a ‘routine’ procedure) using soft ‘pick up ropes’ attached to each hose. members of the deck crew and Bosun picked up and secured the first pick up rope. They had difficulty in securing the second hose. The Chief Mate (the injured party) came down from bridge and physically took over the job. He held the pick-up rope close to the ‘panama eye’ of the vessel with his arm through the eye of the rope. A sudden sea swell tightened the rope. His right hand was caught against the hard edge of the panama eye, and severed.

Investigation identified the following root causes:

• The Chief Mate ‘stepping down’ to crew task without preparation;
• A potential high consequence hazard was not recognised;
• The injured person did not follow accepted practice of seamanship for handling mooring lines;
• Others who might have challenged him and stopped the job were hindered by cultural norms regarding challenges to formal lines of authority.

Members may wish to refer to the following similar incidents (key words: mooring, hand):

• Finger injury whilst casting off towing line
• Two recent cases of hand and arm injuries
• Lost time injury (LTI): Crewman injured foot during offshore renewables mooring operation

Members are reminded to encourage personnel to look after their hands and arms. IMCA produces a range of safety promotional material on hand and arm safety, as well as a poster on mooring safety:

• Watch your hands (pocket card)
• Grinding wheel safety (pocket card)
• Line of fire (pocket card) and Watch out for pinch points (poster)
• Hand-arm vibration (pocket card)
• Mooring safety (poster)