Tag: safety measures

Recently, ABS celebrated an unprecedented third year of zero lost time work-related incidents. This historic achievement establishes ABS as an industry safety leader. In fact, the Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) at ABS has remained at 0.00 throughout 2017, 2018 and now 2019, underscoring ABS’ industry-leading safety performance.

In the beginning of the year, 1 January 2020, the latest version of the IMDG Code, Amendment 39-18, came into force. Following, UK P&I Club along with TT Club collaborated, launching guidelines and providing an insight for all actors in the freight supply chain, who are responsible for preparing unitized consignments for carriage at sea.

During the first SAFETY4SEA Forum in Manila, Mailyn Borillo, President, OSM, discussed the human element, sharing best practices beyond compliance, further underlining that life skills improve seafarer’s wellbeing, yet are the most neglected part of employees’ development. The main challenges of seafarers are challenges on family relationships; mental and physical sickness and further financial burdens, she stressed.

Another piracy incident was reported in Nigeria, as a group of armed men fired upon a containership, located about 19 nautical miles South West of Bayelsa on January 21, Tuesday. Following, the crew has been reported to be safe and unharmed. 

Capt. Yiannis Kapageridis, QA Superintendent, TMS Tankers addresses the topic of training in shipping. As Mr. Kapageridis says, training is crucial, and as such the industry must try to improve its methods and make it a top priority.

The container vessel "EM-Oinousses" experienced an engine room fire while it was sailing  from Maputo to Mombasa, which the crew was able to put out, but the vessel ended up sailing uncontrollable. A salvage company conducted salvage operations and its helped the crewmembers onboard to safely disembark at the port of Nacala, without any injuries, on January 21.

The US Office of Commercial Vessel Compliance released a work instruction to provide guidance to US Coast Guard marine inspectors for alternative testing methods of overspeed protection on electronically controlled engines.

Mooring operations are challenging and sometimes lead to fatal accidents onboard; Therefore, Gard alerts that the first line ashore has the highest potential to snap given the level of load it can experience to steady a moving vessel.

BIMCO provides guidance to the shipping stakeholders concerning the escalated tensions in the Gulf of Guinea, followed by the killing of General Qassem Soleimani by a US drone in early January 2020, and retaliation by Iran.

For pleasure yachts of less than 13.7 meters in length there are no statutory requirements for safety equipment other than those required under SOLAS V; whatsoever, safety equipment is an important part of boat preparation and it is advisable that all pleasure craft skippers check that their vessel is properly equipped.