Safety in the Shipbuilding and Repair Industry
In the time I have spent in this industry safety has always been my number one priority; this edition of Alert! is focusing on the shipbuilding industry.
When I started my career in 1958, at the Swan Hunter Shipyards on the North East Coast of the UK, it was good to see a high quality of shipbuilding, but it was without any reasonable sense of safety being applied by most of the staff. Some years later when building ships in the Far East I was appalled at the poor standard of safety, the main example being staging which was the most dangerous I have ever seen.
Most ships are built with a high degree of automation in steel preparation and erection, which improves the safety – people do however still persist in walking under loads being handled by working cranes. Likewise, openings in decks and bulkheads are not always cordoned off and are easy to fall down if one is not careful. Safe access to the vessel is always an important issue.
When designing and building a vessel you also need to consider the difficulties the operator may encounter when dismantling areas for repair – many accidents have occurred because of a lack of attention to maintainability.
Sea trials also need careful planning to ensure only the correct number of people attend that are required and that there is enough life saving equipment on board to cater for the total compliment, during the trials.
We must ensure that Health and Safety is a top priority; every yard should have a safety system that is audited on a regular basis paying particular attention to the training and education of staff to reduce the risk.
Nearly all accidents are caused by the lack of attention to the human element - a safety culture must be instilled into every person involved in the building or repairing of a vessel.