New Risk Focus Publication Aims to Reduce Slips and Falls

Following the launch of its Bow Tie loss prevention initiative in January, 2012, the UK P&I Club is now embarking on the publication of a series of ‘Risk Focus’ booklets, which highlight specific areas of risk.

This month (April) sees the publication of ‘Risk Focus: Slips, Trips and Falls.’ The Bow Tie loss prevention initiative involves surveyors visiting ships and, together with the managers and crew, producing Bow Tie charts, specific to individual vessels, which identify areas of risk and suggest how such risks might be mitigated.

As was stated at the time of the launch, extensive analysis of previous incidents over a period of 23 years has enabled the Club to identify ‘threats,’ ‘consequences’ and ‘controls,’ the foundations of developing reports on specific vessels. In total, the Club’s Risk Prevention Director, Karl Lumbers, estimates that it has identified seven primary risk hazards; 76 common threats, which, if not contained, could cause an incident; and 450 controls, which need to be in place and effective if the threats are to be contained.

‘Risk Focus: Slips, Trips and Falls’ is, in effect, the first in a series of new Risk Focus publications, although, in October, 2010, the Club published ‘Risk Focus: Moorings’ as a one-off publication, which reflected concerns about the increasing numbers of serious incidents occurring during mooring activities.

Slips, trips and falls represent nearly one in three of the large personal injury claims submitted to the UK Club and have amounted to a staggering $155 million over the past ten years.

Inevitably, many of these claims are caused by a moment of carelessness, thoughtlessness or complacency, as people have moved around a ship, possibly doing their jobs, or even just because the ship is not only their place of work, but where they live. It is easy to dismiss these unpleasant accidents as ‘human error’ or even ‘crew negligence.’ But to examine the detail of so many of them is to reveal other contributors to the chain of causation. Training could have been deficient, or even completely missing, as there is often an assumption that people ‘can look after themselves’ and must take responsibility for their own actions.

As the Bow Tie project has already proven, a proactive and precautionary approach can be very useful and, in this case, should enable the Club to reduce the incidence of slips, trips and falls, first by identifying hazards which have the potential to harm.