STEP CHANGE FOR SAFETY GLOBAL SHARING NOV 2013 - SLIPS, TRIPS & FALLS | Page 9

What is so special about slips, trips and falls? They are ‘accidents’ aren’t they,
part and parcel of life; maybe something which have to be expected aboard ships,
which are mobile, sometimes even violently moving, places of work?
They are special because slips, trips and falls represent
nearly one in three of the large personal injury claims
submitted to the Club and which aggregate to a
staggering $155 m over the past ten years. They are
constant too, with very little variation in numbers of claims
from year to year.

proper consideration of the risks of carrying them out.
‘We have always done it this way!’ may be no guarantee
that it will be the safest way, and may involve people in
taking hazardous short cuts. But because of the huge
costs of these claims, and because of the human
suffering represented by each of them, the Club
strongly believes that a concerted attack must be made
But they are also special because they represent, not just on the incidence of slips, trip and falls. These are
money, or the squashed metal or damaged ships
accidents which occur for a reason, and if we
encountered in other sorts of claim, but genuine pain and understand the reasons behind the existence of these
suffering from people who have been injured or even
hazards rather better, then we can put in place controls
killed, because they have slipped, tripped or fallen
that will hopefully prevent accidents occurring, but will
aboard ship. So these claims go beyond numbers, each also mitigate their consequences.
of them a story of individual injury, which has happened
because of a moment’s carelessness, thoughtlessness
A proactive and precautionary approach can be very
or complacency, as people have moved around a ship,
useful in reducing the incidents of slips, trips and falls,
possibly doing their jobs, or even just because the ship is in first of all identifying hazards which have the potential
not only their place of work, but where they live.
to hurt people. Very often accidents occur because
nobody has considered that what they are doing might
It is easy to dismiss these unpleasant accidents as
be hazardous. Just walking around the ship with a sharp
‘human error’, or even ‘crew negligence’, but to examine eye and an open mind can help to identify features
the detail of so many of them is to reveal other
which might, in an unguarded moment, hurt people.
contributors to the chain of causation. Training could
have been deficient or even completely missing, as there It is very often not the obvious, like working at height, or
is often an assumption that people ‘can look after
with machinery, that will cause the accidents, because
themselves’ and must take responsibility for their own
an experienced seafarer will probably be taking the
actions. The environment, which is mostly a function of
proper precautions, and will be adequately clad with
design, may well have been a contributor, if there was
procedural controls in place. Rather, just moving
inadequate lighting, or the dangers were not obvious, or around the ship, going up and down companionways
the particular design of the ship required people to put
and ladders, carrying weights or neglecting to keep
themselves ‘in hazard’ just to get a job done. And the
‘one hand for the ship and one for yourself’ are not
procedures aboard ship may have been devised without infrequently behind very nasty accidents.