Using good design practice to reduce slip, trip and fall accidents
Slips, trips and falls (STFs) are the leading causes of injuries for personnel working onboard commercial ships, sometimes even resulting in death. In addition to their human cost, STFs can also lead to significant expenses for shipowners, P&I clubs and insurance companies. Reducing their occurrence is therefore of paramount importance.
Bureau Veritas (BV ) has developed guidelines to improve ship design by taking STF prevention into account as early as possible in the process. The later STFs are addressed in the design process, the higher the cost of their prevention will be. BV also wishes to reduce the STF risks that its own surveyors are exposed to when inspecting vessels by fostering better practices in shipbuilding with regards to the prevention of STFs.
The first step was an analysis of the design of means of access onboard for inspection (as in IMO and IACS recommendations), maintenance and operations. A specific methodology was developed so that means of access should be designed to fit the physical capabilities of the seafarers and surveyors who will use them, and to capture feedback from seafarers and surveyors who use them to improve future designs. Involving the users in the design process is a well- known but not so often applied principle of ergonomics preventing suitability issues between the human-machine interfaces and their operators.
Surveyors were interviewed and questionnaires were used to get their feedback about the way they assess the occupational risks associated with the means of access they use. The surveyors were also asked to suggest ideas for the improvement of the means of access. Next, an anthropometric analysis was carried out to determine the various structural dimensions required for a safe design of the means of access.
This analysis consisted of fitting the means of access to both the physical dimensions of the users and the task they have to carry out (e.g. climbing up a ladder wearing a boiler suit and breathing apparatus). A systematic analysis of the most important means of access (ladders, stair ladders, horizontal and vertical openings, and walkways) was performed. Some of the best practices that have been proposed by the seafarers as well as some of those sometimes encountered onboard commercial vessels were also analysed.
BV is about to publish a guidance note addressed to the various stakeholders involved in ship design, particularly shipyards and shipowners, which will significantly reduce the risk of STFs.
The next step in BV's strategy for the mitigation of occupational accidents is the development of a set of ergonomics- based guidelines for the design, layout and arrangement of machinery spaces.
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