200208 Serious Mooring Accident

Serious Mooring Accident
Report No. 200208

I was most interested to read the article relating to the Failure of Mooring Rope during the berthing of a ship (MARS 200127 - SEAWAYS May 2001) and would like to present the following information on a similar event which occurred in our port last year.

A Port Authority Port Services Officer was involved in an accident during the course of mooring a vessel in the Port's Inner Harbour. As a result of the accident he had the lower part of his right leg amputated. The accident happened when the eye of a mooring line "gave way" while the vessel's crew was applying tension to one of its stern lines.

This incident set in motion a series of events which has resulted in the following initiative being taken by the International Association of Ports and Harbours with the full support of the International Harbour Master's Association.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PORTS AND HARBOURS (IAPH)

QUESTIONNAIRE ON SAFETY ISSUES MOORING LINES AND MOORING EQUIPMENT

In recent years there have been a number of incidents relating to ship mooring lines and mooring equipment that have caused death or serious injury to personnel on ships, tugs and on wharves, involved with mooring or towage activities (when using ship mooring lines as the tow line). Fortunately not all incidents involving mooring line or mooring equipment failure result in death, injury or damage, but all have the potential to do so. Some incidents have the potential to cause damage to ships and port equipment but often are corrected before this actually happens.

In any study on the risk of an operation, it is, of course, not only important to measure the actual major incidents where death, injury, property or environmental damage has occurred, but also the 'near misses', as these provide information on actual operational risks. SOLAS does not include mooring equipment or mooring lines under its regulations as it is not seen that mooring lines and mooring equipment are part of seaworthiness, which is the limit of SOLAS regulations. It is considered that the absence of regulations on the safety of ship's mooring lines and mooring equipment is a critical omission from IMO's safety regulations and agenda. As a result of this omission, there is no legal basis for States to inspect ships mooring equipment and mooring lines under Port State Control as there is with all other aspects of ships (seaworthiness) safety.

A proposal has already been made by one IMO member State that IMO's Maritime Safety Committee review safety issues in relation to ships mooring equipment. It is hoped that this proposal will be extended to cover mooring lines.

In view of the importance of this safety issue, the IAPH's Port Safety, Environment and Marine Operations and IMO Interface Committees, recently agreed at the Montreal conference to prepare a questionnaire to go to all IAPH members to seek information on incidents relating to ship's mooring lines and mooring equipment. It is hoped that this will demonstrate that there is a compelling need for this matter to be considered urgently by the relevant IMO committees. The questionnaire has the support of the International Harbour Masters Association (IHMA) and we understand that they will also circulate it to their members. Where the questionnaire asks if wharf personnel have been killed or injured, the questions refer to persons engaged in line handling operations on the wharf or in a line launch, together with any other person on the wharf that has been affected by an incident, e.g. port official, visitor etc.

Unfortunately the results of the survey will not be available until the end of 2001. However, early indications are that the matter is serious and that there is an urgent need for something to be done as soon as possible to have mooring lines and mooring equipment recognised by the relevant IMO committees.

As a member of the International Harbour Masters Association, and a member of the Nautical Institute, I would seek the support of fellow members to bring this matter to the attention of their local IMO member as soon as possible.