The MAIB has released its latest Safety Digest 2/202 featuring 25 essential case studies following maritime incidents and accidents. Introducing the MAIB Safety Digest 2/2021, Andrew Moll, Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, says, “I would like to start by thanking Matthew Easton, John Clark and Iain Elliott for writing the introductions to the Merchant, Fishing and Recreational Craft sections of this digest. As always, their perspectives on maritime safety make compelling reading. There are many aspects to safe operations and, purely by coincidence, our three introduction writers have focused on different parts of the safety effort.
John Clark’s accident in 2013 was the trigger for him to focus on assessing risks and taking steps to reduce them. I will not steal his thunder by repeating his words here, but, if you read nothing else in this edition, do please read John’s introduction to the Fishing section. John’s ‘safety conversion’ occurred as a result of an accident, but the whole point of the Safety Digest is to provide readers with the opportunity to learn from others’ misfortunes.
I am a great fan of safety acronyms – they are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they work for me. I will certainly be adding Matthew Easton’s PLAN/PLAY to my toolkit. Sometimes a simple acronym is all that is needed to prompt a review before commencing a task; on other occasions a checklist is required; and, if the task is new or unusual, a dynamic risk assessment and, possibly, a permit to work might be needed before commencing it. Whatever level of preparation is required they have one thing in common, which is a pause to take stock before starting work.
Te third element of safety in this edition is Iain Elliott’s simple message, ‘get trained’. His introduction precedes the Recreational Craft section of the digest, but astute readers will notice that many of the articles contain stories of how good training and preparation helped prevent a drama becoming a crisis.
In this introduction I would like to add one safety message of my own, which is the importance of a ‘banksman’ or other form of safety supervisor when the machine operator does not have direct sight of the work area. There have been very many accidents in recent months, some reported in this digest, that have occurred because there was no intermediary to tell the crane or winch operator that the work area was clear before operations commenced, or to call “Stop!” if someone entered a dangerous zone. It is all too easy to dispense with the banksman and ‘manage’ without, but the results can be catastrophic. When there is a manpower shortage it is tempting to manage without a supervisor, controller or banksman, but, because their vigilance is what keeps people safe, they are probably the most important members of the team.”
Download the 67 page Safety Digest: MAIB Safety Digest 2/2021