Good risk assessments, procedures and compliance with these shall ensure that the employees' safety is well taken care of during all work tasks on board. It is important that everyone involved is coordinated and has a common risk understanding for the tasks to be performed.
The risk assessments and procedures must be updated if the work method, work equipment or other matters of importance to safety and health have changed since the last risk assessment was performed.
Background
A smaller service vessel was heading towards a fish cage, and two of the crew members were ready on deck to moor the vessel as it approached the cage ring. The vessel has a gate in the ship’s side and a hinged hatch in the deck, where a staircase under the hatch leads down to the waterline. At this time the hatch and the gate had been opened, ready for disembarkation. When the vessel thrusted sideways approx. 1-1.5 meters from the ring, one of the crew members slipped for unknown reasons and fell down the stairs, through the open gate and into the sea. The person was then crushed between the ship’s side and the cage ring and died.
The NMA believes that the hatch, stairs and gate solution improves the safety during boarding and disembarking while the vessel is at the cage-/quayside, but there must be clear guidelines for how these are to be operated at sea.