04:09 pm, Monday 4 October, 2010

A union is calling for clarifications as to which regulatory body has authority over the shipping sector following the death of a seafarer.

In 24 December 2008, a 43, year-old man died on a tanker after being struck on the head by a heavy line. It was later found that he was cutting the lashing that had attached the end of the line to a winch drum when the line unwound abruptly.

According to the WA Maritime union’s Chris Cain, there are a number of regulatory bodies, and he is calling for just one.

“We need to sit down with them all, identify their areas, and have one regulator that we can identify, that workers can identify and the employers can identify so that there’s no misunderstanding, no confusion,” he said.

“It wouldn’t lead to deaths in the industry, hopefully it will stop them.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released a report on Tuesday stating the safety procedures were not always followed in the tanker.

It also revealed that it is possible for ships to fall outside the jurisdiction of the safety regulators.

ATSB recommended that the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority to acts and change the situation.

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07:06 am, Thursday 30 September, 2010

A mariner who was killed on board a floating storage, north of Dampier in WA, placed himself in a precarious situation, a report reveals.

The 43-year-old man died on December 24 2008 after being hit in the head with a heavy line while crew members disconnected the ship from its mooring buoy.

They were trying to avoid an approaching cyclone.

The seafarer was using a knife to cut the lashing that had attached the end of the line to a winch drum when the line unwound abruptly.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) report was released on Tuesday, stating  the seafarer had placed himself in a dangerous position by standing between the cheeks of the winch drum.

The report said he could not properly assess the load which had been placed on the line because of where he was standing.

The safety procedures for disconnecting from the mooring buoy were not clear, according to the ATSB.

“The ship’s procedures for connecting and disconnecting from [the buoy] did not provide explicit, succinct and unambiguous guidance,” the report stated.

“There were differences between the procedures and the actual shipboard practices that increased the level of risk associated with those operations.”

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06:34 pm, Monday 30 August, 2010

The Queensland Government is targeting the commercial fishing industry on the Sunshine Coast in its new safety campaign.

The campaign hopes to improve safety and raise awareness on windlass winch and capstan use.

But key players in the commercial fishing industry in the area said they had not been informed of the campaign, which includes conducting safety audits starting this week.

According to Industrial Relations Minister Cameron Dick, the campaign was developed by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland WHSQ) following a probe into a fishing accident last year.

On 16 November 2009, a skipper’s arm was severed after being entangled in a winch of a trawler.

“WHSQ will be conducting audits of fishing vessels, targeting the use of capstan and windlass winches that are usually used to lift gear at the rear of the vessel,” Mr Dick said.

“Investigations into last year’s incident show there is a heightened risk of entanglement in the moving part of a winch, with potentially fatal consequences.

“Under the bad weather conditions often faced by a fishing fleet, the situation can become worse, affecting the stability of workers operating a winch.”

A member of the Queensland Seafood Industry Association said he had not been informed about the proposed safety audit.

This was echoed by a Mooloolaba trawler owner-operator, who said the commercial fishers operating in the Coast were already tightly regulated, and described the safety audits as surprising.

“Ours is such a highly regulated industry. Every year the boats are safety audited by Marine Safety Queensland,” he said.

“On the Coast the trawler fleet is very conscious of safety. What happened to Steve May was terrible, but it was an accident.

“In my view this is just another example of another State Government department chipping away at the fishing industry without us knowing.”

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06:44 pm, Friday 30 April, 2010

The Noosa Industrial Magistrates Court has fined a small construction company over a workplace incident which caused injuries to a worker.

The Sunshine Coast firm was found guilty on March 11 to failing to ensure workplace safety under section 24 (1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995.

Industrial Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan imposed a fine of $30,000, as well as $1162.14 investigation costs and $65.40 court costs.

The Court was told that a worker was working on a job at Noosa Heads on 7 August 2008 when a rotating winch handle struck him. He suffered a fractured left forearm as a result.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland investigation found the firm had previously acknowledged the risks associated with the task being carried out. However, it had not conducted and documented a risk assessment, and had only implemented administrative controls (verbal instructions) as a way of risk management.

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