The fatality rate in the marine industry may be low compared with other sectors, but more can be done to prevent incidents. That was the message conveyed by the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Office of Marine Safety (OMS) during its recent “safety advocacy tour.”
Today is the 42nd anniversary of the wreck of he Edumund Fitzgerald which sent 29 mariners to a watery grave and was immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in what was probably the most famous song about a workplace disaster. WXYZ in Detroit notes that “Of the more than 1000 ships in the graves under the icy waters of the Great Lakes, the Edmund Fitzgerald is still the largest to ever go down.”
The 729-foot freighter was caught in storm carrying hurricane-strength winds on Nov. 10, 1975, and sank as it carried a load of iron ore across Lake Superior. (H/T to Thurman Wenzl for the reminder.)
Exposure to hazardous substances and at risk for injury from fires and explosions are the primary dangers faced by workers involved with the construction and maintenance of marine vessels who conduct spray painting.
Too much speed and too steep of an angle of approach resulted in the May 8, 2016, collision involving the cruise ship Carnival Pride in which more than $2 million in property damage occurred, according to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) marine accident brief released today.
For longshoremen who load and offload timber in the upper Northwest, every ship that sails into port carries a reminder of the litany of hazards they face at work. Loads of extremely heavy logs must be handled carefully to avoid serious and potentially fatal injuries.
After issuing a historic final rule on silica exposure limits last week, OSHA continues its burst of regulatory activity this week by publishing a final rule that updates requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers in general industry, shipyards, longshoring, marine terminals and construction.
Stronger safety measures may have saved the lives of two workers who died at a Pearl Harbor naval maintenance facility in December 2014 after being struck by a 7-ton buoy, which has led OSHA to order safety upgrades.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its "Safer Seas 2014: Lessons Learned From Marine Accident Investigations" report. Safer Seas is a compilation of accident investigations that were published in 2014, organized by vessel type with links to the more detailed accident reports.
Transportation fatalities in the United States increased by three percent in 2012 from 2011, according to preliminary figures released recently by the National Transportation Safety Board.
