UK P&I Club has launched its latest video in a series of award-winning reflective learning training videos, based on a real-life case of an incident when a seaman sustained serious injuries after falling from portable staging during routine cleaning of a vessel’s cargo hold.

The animated video depicts deck crew cleaning cargo holds at sea, in preparation for the next cargo. In order to gain better access to the upper areas of the hold, the crew arranged the high pressure washing equipment on top of portable staging erected on the tank top. The staging was approximately 6 metres in height and lashed to the ship’s structure to keep it stable.

When re-positioning the staging, the crew released the lashings and pushed the apparatus across the tank top. During this movement, the seaman on top of the staging lost his balance and fell down on to the tank top, sustaining serious injuries. Unknown to the crew below, the seaman on top of the staging had disconnected his safety harness from the lifeline at some point before the incident occurred.

Stuart Edmonston, Loss Prevention Director at UK P&I Club, said:

“Working aloft in any circumstances requires careful planning and implementation of appropriate safety precautions. When a ship is at sea, the necessity of performing such work should be very carefully considered, particularly taking into account the possibility of unexpected ship motion and the limitations of available equipment. In the case of hold cleaning, the crew are not expected to take unreasonable risks in complying with a commercial requirement of presenting clean holds in readiness to load the next cargo.

“Our interactive training videos are aimed at improving standards and safety at sea, prompting crew and ship operators to question if this could happen on their ship, and how they can mitigate the risks.”

The series of videos provide an interactive training experience with a focus on educating crew members on common marine accidents or oversights and how to mitigate the risk of them occurring. Hosted across Thomas Miller websites, the videos are available to view for training purposes by both marine employers and their employees.
Source: UK P&I Club