P&I Executive and Loss Prevention Advisor – Captain Anuj Velankar recently represented the UK P&I Club at a seminar organised by Executive Ship Management. The seminar involved senior officers, trainees of the institute and also staff from the different offices of Executive Ship Management and was held in the ESM's Lonavala training institute in India on the 30th March 2016.
One of the issues that Anuj and the Loss prevention team have been focusing on is casualties during enclosed space entry. One of the leading causes of death in shipboard operations is related to enclosed space entries incidents. 60 % of casualties in enclosed spaces are from people entering the enclosed space to rescue other people - more die attempting to save people in the enclosed spaces, than people involved in the initial accident. These statistics show an urgent need to train seafarers in proper entry procedures, and to ensure adequate resources are spent in planning and training for effective rescue from enclosed spaces.
There was some awareness generated on the subject on enclosed space entries last year due to the extensive world wide PSC CIC that took place. The preliminary results of the CIC are now out and some worrying statistics are evident. The results from the Indian Ocean MOU show that as many as 1 in four ships inspected during the CIC had some deficiency related to enclosed space entry.
A separate successful workshop also carried out in which the participants carried out risk assessments focused on preventing personal injuries from “Slips trips and falls” as well as enclosed spaces. The Club has an excellent Risk assessment system based on the Bow Tie methodology more information is available on the Club's Loss Prevention webpage.
This report includes information about incidents involving enclosed spaces on ships and subsequent actions that should be considered in order to prevent these incidents occurring again.
