Accidents at Sea: Falling Off a Lifeboat Causes Death

Accidents at sea occur mainly because of sheer carelessness of seafarers. The basic safety policies and usage of equipment are often neglected, leading to severe life-threatening accidents. However, when an accident involves death of a seafarer, it becomes a serious issue.

Seafarers have a tendency to neglect safety procedures and equipment just to get the work done quickly. In the process, they keep their lives on stake, unaware of the dangerous threats they are exposed to.

This true incident is about a seaman who lost his life while working on the deck without taking basic precautions.

The Incident

The incident took place on a container vessel. While the ship was berthed on the port, the chief officer gave out the instructions to clean one of the life boats. It had been raining heavily the whole day and the deck was pretty slippery. One of the seamen was sent on the deck to do the job.

The seaman climbed up the davit and started doing the job. However, while working, he slipped and fell head-first from the life boat onto the deck. He was immediately given the first aid and taken to a hospital ashore.

After doing check-ups at the hospital, it was found that one of the sides of his skull had developed a crack and there was continuous internal bleeding. He was shifted to one of the best hospitals for better treatments. However, because of the continuous internal bleeding, the seaman died within a week’s time.

Conclusion

It was later found that the seaman did not adhere to any kind of safety guidelines. He was neither wearing a safety helmet nor had a lifeline on him at the time of his fall. Clearly, he failed to ensure safety for his own self by compromising on the basic personal safety requirements.

Most of the time seafarers compromise their own safety while working, failing to realize that the risk they are taking is not worth it.

It is therefore imperative that everyone working on ship knows about the safety procedures and equipment provided for their own personal safety. Moreover, they should develop a habit to put these safety guidelines into practice to help make their working environment safer.

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About Author

Raunek Kantharia is a marine engineer turned maritime writer and entrepreneur. After a brief stint at the sea, he founded Marine Insight in 2010. Apart from managing Marine Insight, he also writes for a number of maritime magazines and websites.