Expert Witness Services News

UK-based international provider of insurance services Thomas Miller has acquired international marine consultancy business Brookes Bell for an undisclosed sum. Brookes Bell is a marine technical and surveying consultancy with offices in Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. It has served the marine and energy industries since 1903, providing specialist services in areas including emergency response, casualty investigation, salvage and wreck removal operations, scientific cargo expertise, forensic engineering and expert witness services. The firm also provides research and development of ship design support to enhance maritime safety and technology and employs a renowned group of marine engineers…

Bureau Veritas has acquired international consultancy TMC Marine Ltd. TMC has provided pre- and post-casualty advice and support to the marine industry since 1979. The business focuses on marine claims and accident investigations, salvage and wreck removal consultancy and marine expert witness services for a client base that spans P&I clubs, law firms, marine insurers, salvage companies and ship owners. Headquartered in London, TMC has a network of offices in the U.S., China, Singapore and Australia. It employs more than 50 people and generated revenues of €8.5 million in 2015. Didier Michaud-Daniel, CEO of Bureau Veritas, said, “Our Marine & Offshore business, the historical activity of Bureau Veritas, is one of our eight key growth initiatives to 2020. As such, it is evolving rapidly.

Offshore and onshore health and medical solutions company Iqarus is set to acquire occupational hygiene consultancy C-CHEC to deliver a new integrated offering to global industries. Dougie Collin, currently Director of Occupational Hygiene for C-CHEC, will head up Iqarus’ Environmental Sciences Division and will bring his team and over 30 years of experience to expand Iqarus’ capability as an international player in providing healthcare solutions in remote and difficult environments. Tim Mitchell, CEO of Iqarus, said the strategic acquisition, expected to close this month, will be the first in a series that will transform the provision of healthcare solutions for challenging environments.

London Offshore Consultants (LOC), a global marine and engineering consultant for the shipping and offshore energy sectors, announces plans to increase its presence in Australia. Identifying a strategic growth plan which allows the group to maintain quality and improve client response time, satellite operations, firstly in Sydney, and then the surrounding region, will be opened to support the existing operation in Perth. The expansion announcement comes in the same month as LOC celebrates its 25th anniversary in Australia.

Thunderbolt Marine welcomes Rich Galuk as he joins TMI as Vice President and General Manager. Rich has worked closely with TMI over the years in his duties managing the Savannah Bar Pilots' fleet of vessels & marine surveying. Galuk's 29+ years in the marine industry also include service with the United States Coast Guard, maritime law enforcement,  marine repairs, consulting and expert witness services. Rich, his wife and two children have lived in the Savannah area for 28 years.

Brookes Bell Group - the marine, scientific and technical consultants and surveyors – has laid out a new strategy that will enhance its existing wide-ranging expertise with recent acquisitions and ventures that have significantly broadened its capabilities. Within the last 12 months, the UK-based group has formed an important alliance with AMS Shanghai Ltd. establishing Brookes Bell Shanghai, set up Brookes Bell Hong Kong, acquired Bunker Claims International and merged with Naval Architecture specialists, Safety at Sea Ltd., based in Glasgow.

Jason Bennett has joined TITAN Salvage as commercial director, reporting to company Vice President Rich Habib. He is domiciled in TITAN's United Kingdom (UK) facility at Newhaven, East Sussex. As a member of the company's senior management team, Bennett will help shape strategic, operational and commercial business initiatives particularly as they relate to securing salvage, wreck removal and emergency response work for TITAN around the world. In addition, he will provide business development support for Crowley Maritime Corporation's newly formed solutions group.

Guido Perla & Associates, Inc. (GPA), headquartered in , has established a European subsidiary – Guido Perla Europe GmbH (GPE GmbH) – in . GPE GmbH will initially handle the sales, marketing and PR function, as well as existing customer support. ”The strategic decision to further expand GPA into Europe supports our vision of being a truly global player,” said Inga Scholz, General Manager of GPE GmbH. Since its foundation in 1979, GPA has provided a full range of services to include Conceptual and Preliminary Design…

Gresham Marine Surveying, Inc., headquartered in Savannah, Ga., has opened operations serving the Savannah, Brunswick, Charleston, and Jacksonville maritime communities. Capt. Jeffrey T. only a few marine surveyors in the world currently providing the draft/freeboard indicator service. 1/16th of an inch. as being indispensable for calculating displacement tonnages on barges and bulk carriers. not affected by sea and swell," said Capt. Jeffrey Gresham. and tanker ROB surveys. The company also provides expert witness services. concerned parties," said Gresham.

Was This A Permit Required Confined Space? By Hector V. Pazos, P.E. This accident happened in a large compartment of an Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV), which, because of lack of appropriate ventilation and toxic atmosphere it should have been treated as a confined space. An OSV is a vessel that carries supplies to offshore platforms and rigs drilling for oil and gas in the oceans, such as the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the supplies are carried on the cargo deck, but drilling mud and other chemicals are carried below the cargo deck in a compartment designated as "Bulk Mud Room", which on some OSV's may be 60 to 100 feet long. In this compartment some 10 to 20 large pressurized cylindrical tanks measuring 15 to 18 ft. in diameter and 10 to 12 ft.

The majority of accidents involve personal injuries and/or fatalities, although the strong and continuous improvement in the field of accident prevention is resulting in a constant reduction of the number of marine related fatalities. After investigating several hundred marine accidents, we are concluding that marine accidents involving equipment failure have relatively low influence in the rate of personal injury accidents. Common accidents resulting in personal injury are caused by a condition not easy to detect by a casual observer. Hence, designers and supervisors should be alert and not to take for granted that a casual observer would recognize a dangerous situation.

Because the exposure to the marine environment and motions of a vessel, slips and falls are a significant source of personal injuries in floating equipment, probably substantially greater than most industry groups. Although there are a good number of publications, books and articles written regarding the subject of slip and falls, there are almost none addressing the conditions found in a marine environment, which influence slips and falls. The generally accepted industry standard is that a static anti-slip coefficient of friction of .50 or above is safe on a dry walkway surface. A value below .50 indicates an unsafe walkway surface.

The 'A' rated 54 million GT North of England P&I club has published a second edition of its popular guide for the shipping industry on the International Safety Management (ISM) Code. The first edition of A Seafarer's Guide to ISM, which was published to coincide with the code's phase II implementation in July 2002, has proved an essential shipboard reference and several thousand copies are now in use worldwide. North of England's risk-management manager Tony Baker says: 'Though many companies and seafarers have embraced the ISM as it was intended, we are aware there are others who still have misconceptions about the fundamental ideas behind the code and the way in which a safety management system should be structured and operated.