201314 Foot injury

At the end of the day on a vessel at sea, two crewmembers were engaged in securing the grit blasting equipment on deck for the night. While moving the machine to its intended stowing position, the trailing grit hose snagged on an obstruction. As one person went to free the hose, the other seaman found it impossible to hold the top-heavy, wheel-mounted unit. As the unit toppled over, the seaman let go and tried to jump clear, but the equipment fell on his left foot. Despite his steel toed-safety boots, the impact inflicted a serious crush and cut injury. He was stretchered to the ship’s hospital, and was given first aid and treatment according to radio medical advice.

Root cause/contributory factors
1 Lack of proper risk assessment and situational awareness;
2 Insufficient manpower to safely control the movement of heavy wheeled equipment.

Lessons learnt
1 Crewmembers must jointly conduct a proper appraisal and risk assessment, ensuring sufficient manpower is deployed for safe conduct of every task;
2 If an unsafe situation arises, the work should be immediately stopped and the situation corrected with all the appropriate safeguards put in place prior to resuming the work;
3 All team members must maintain a high level of situational awareness at all times.