SAFETY SPOTLIGHT

Fatal Man-Over-Board Incident August 22, 2020

Last month Foss marked the one-year anniversary of the man overboard incident (MOB) that claimed the life of a Foss Hawaii Engineer/Deckhand. We are now able to share some more specifics of what happened that day.

On August 22, 2020, at about 0400, a fatal accident involving a barge occurred while two Foss Hawaii tugs were preparing to shift the barge from one Pier to another. Once the barge was hard against the Pier, the Engineer/Deckhand boarded the barge from a tug and proceeded to the port stern side. He then descended the barge’s port stern “pigeonhole” ladder to access the Pier and let go the stern mooring line from the Pier bitt. After that, he climbed back onto the barge via the ladder and pulled in the mooring line.

A short time later, one another crewmember heard a call of distress from what he believed was the stern area of the barge and went to investigate. He found the Engineer/Deckhand in the water between the Pier and barge with his work vest inflated. Crewmembers threw the stern line and life ring to the Engineer/Deckhand, however he did not attempt to grab either the stern line or life ring, but instead continued to hold on to the Pier fender. Shortly thereafter, the Engineer/Deckhand appeared to lose consciousness and ceased holding onto the Pier fender. One of the crewmembers entered the water, grabbed the Engineer/Deckhand and swam to the barge where he held on. Additional rescue efforts including one from a USCG rescue boat were not successful and the Engineer/Deckhand was pronounced dead at the scene.

The coroner determined the cause of death to be drowning. The investigation report did not conclude an exact probable cause for the incident. It is suspected that the Engineer/Deckhand tripped over a manhole cover near the edge of the barge, lost his balance, then fell overboard around an opening where railing safety chains were missing, and may have hit his head prior to entering the water.

The following key lessons learned were developed:

1. Proper deck lighting should always be in place whenever working at night. Trip hazards should be marked and safety chains in place.

2. Always take the time to conduct an effective risk assessment i.e. determine how you can do the job safely and consider local conditions, weather, available lighting, manning, etc.

3. Always follow safety procedures.

4. Minimize transfers between tugs, boats, barges, dock, etc.

5. Personal flotation devices (PFD) should be fit for purpose. In this case, the Engineer/Deckhand was not a strong swimmer, and the manufacturer’s manual for his PFD states “weak or non-swimmers should not use this device.”

6. Conduct periodic and realistic man overboard training, exercises, and drills.

7. All employees, regardless of their role, have a duty to Speak Up and take action to address real, potential, or perceived safety concerns. Supervisors should encourage and support this.

In response to the investigation, Saltchuk’s Group Safety Committee developed a fall prevention for persons working on or near the water best practice document. The document has been shared across the Saltchuk Marine family of companies. Saltchuk Marine developed a Speak Up Take Action Video to motivate employees across the organization to speak up and take action when they see something that is not right. Since the incident, operating company safety leaders have started to implement a series of corrective actions specific to their company.

This learning will now involve all of you. Specifically, I ask each of our mariners and any other employees working on or near the water to engage in this learning process. As a start, please carefully review the developed best practice document, these lessons learned, and determine how these may apply to you and your team members. I know that when all of us are engaged we can and will make our operations even safer.