Although not frequent, accidents on the gangway happen often, and certainly nearly always result in serious injuries. All steps and ladders (particularly those on external decks) should be looked at with a safety conscious pair of eyes. Any effort to prevent slips, trips and falls is well worth it.

The standard initiative is to apply high-visibility orange paint to the leading edge of all steps, and the whole area of top and bottom platforms. The crew of one entered ship have used a green 'dayglow' paint, which is very effective. The images below show just how visible this paint is.

Click on an image to enlarge.