Page 50 - CHIRP annual digest 2016.pdf

CHIRP Maritime

blanks were located at the manifold. The necessary CHIRP Comment
replacement components were fitted in due course. The risks associated with the walkway design hazards had
clearly not been reduced to ‘As Low as Reasonably
Lessons to be learnt
Practical’ (ALARP) and creates an unacceptable risk of
The company was correctly concerned with this report. It personal injury as a result of a slip, trip or fall. The risk
emerged that there had been no previous order for a new
should have been mitigated by a post build design
valve, no record or explanation of the blanks, and no initiative to have a grated walkway over the top of the
discussion at the time with the company office or at ship
pipes.
staff handover.
Please refer to article in Alert! Number 01275 –
CHIRP Suggests
http://www.he-alert.org/en/utilities/download.cfm/fid/
The company took admirable steps to emphasise the E9558858-316B-4C74-87DD26DE5E815204.
importance of timely and open ship/shore dialogue.
Frequent communication between the office super - CHIRP comment on the second photograph, the
intendent(s) and the vessel can assist with this. In the first minimum head clearance at all locations onboard is
instance a material defect was concealed, and not rectified, stipulated as 2.1 Metres: This was not complied with in
with potentially severe consequences: pollution, injury, this case.
and/or pipeline damage. We may surmise, but cannot The above article was published in MFB45
know, the original reasons. The case is a clear illustration
of poor prevalent safety culture at the time.

The above article was published in MFB44 Article. 42
Machinery Space Finger Injuries
Article. 41 This joint article includes reports relating to fingers being
Ouch! – Bad Ship Designs caught in the belt of an air conditioning blower and
We encourage seafarers to submit examples of bad design. fingertips amputated during maintenance of an auxiliary
Please include photographs, since a picture speaks a engine.
thousand words! We can share two such reports with you
here. What did the reporters tell us?

What did the reporter tell us? Apparently E/O fingers got trapped
A photograph of a poorly designed pilot boarding area. The
between the belt and the pulley
pipes are tripping hazards and there is an irony of
positioning them in an area that has a clear to read sign
stencilled onto the deck telling people to keep the area
clear. Also, please find attached a photo showing poor
design onboard a ship I piloted. I am 188 cm tall and as
you can see, the light fitting comes down to less than
180,cm right in the middle of the bridge toilet room. I have
found this same situation on a number of vessels. Although
it didn’t cause injury it has the potential to do so.

(1) The electrical officer (E/O) and fitter were performing
routine maintenance on the air conditioner blowers.
After completion of greasing of the two blowers, the
E/O switched on the power of the system to test the
system. The no. 2 blower was observed by the E/O to
be drawing excess current. To investigate the case, he
switched off the power to the No. 2 blower with the
intention to check the tension of the belt between
the blower’s motor and the fan. For this purpose, after

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