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Play your part in improving workplace safety. Browse our extensive catalogue of Safety Alerts and Learnings to learn from the experiences of industry colleagues.

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Operating Mobile Plant - Contact with Live Electricity

The boom arm of a 25-tonne excavator contacted a 12,700 V overhead powerline causing the powerline to fall to the ground adjacent to the excavator. The excavator was in the process of clearing an access track. The incident occurred at 3pm. Wet weather the night before had brought this work scope for…

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Incorrectly Supplied Air Horn – contained propane/butane propellant

While moving breathing apparatus rescue equipment in the habitat for the port slops tank, it was identified that the Air-Horns in use were not as per equipment normally used. Upon further investigation, it was noted that the cans contain a propane/butane mix. Two cans were removed from the habitat, …

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Worker cut hand on broken mirror

A crew person on a vessel sustained a deep cut on the left thumb while attempting to repair a broken mirror. The mirror had shattered because the closet (bathroom) door in his cabin had fallen off the hinges. The person had reported to the Chief Officer that the closet door in his cabin had become d…

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LTI - Finger crush whilst operating safety gate

A crew member got his finger trapped in a hinged fall protection bar on a crane pedestal platform, causing a serious injury. The crew member was climbing the main crane vertical ladder; when he reached the top of the ladder, he used his right hand to raise the hinged fall protection bar to gain acce…

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Two Hand Injuries

A member reports two hand injuries. Incident 1: As a Pilot climbed the vessel's access hatch to the under-deck passage, his backpack straps entangled with the hatch retaining bar. A sudden release of the hatch caused it to abruptly close, causing pain and swelling to the Pilot's right-hand knuckle…

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Failure of personal isolation procedures: crane damaged when it was used inappropriately

On a vessel in dry dock, a crane, which had been isolated for many days for work to be conducted by a third party, was used by crew unaware that the crane was out of use for maintenance. The crane was damaged as a result, leading to increased maintenance time and cost. A “personal” isolation of the…

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Line of fire near miss during lifting operations

A member of the deck crew member put themselves in the line of fire during landing of a structure on the back deck of a vessel. The installation aids (bumper bars) were insufficient to stabilise the load, resulting in the structure being landed narrowly missing the individual, and damaging an adjac…

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Maintaining Process Equipment - Loss of Containment

A maintenance worker was instructed to reduce bolt a flange join on a heat exchanger shell. This was in the work scope and documented in the work permit. The worker set up their work area and then commenced work on the wrong heat exchanger shell, which was live. An operator noticed that work was p…

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Chemical Handling – Eye Burn

Vessel’s engineer was preparing equipment for treating fuel tanks with biocide. Correct PPE was used for the job, and a toolbox talk was carried out. A portable pneumatic pump was in use for this job. During checks of the pump, a small splash/spray was released from the hose, at the same time the In…

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Case study: saturation diver fatality due to hydrogen sulphide

The incident happened on board a vessel operating in an offshore oil field, on a long charter for carrying out inspection, maintenance and repair duties. An oil leak was discovered in one of the main 36-inch (91cm) diameter subsea lines carrying sour crude. The vessel was directed to proceed to the…

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Failure of proportional valve in saturation chamber control

There was a failure during saturation diving operations. There were no injuries to personnel nor damage to equipment, but time was lost. The automatic control system for the hyperbaric chamber detected that there was a proportional valve command/feedback discrepancy and stopped pressure control of t…

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Compressed air rather than oxygen supplied to divers

Several divers were affected and two divers became ill when compressed air rather than oxygen was supplied to them by mistake on their BIBS (Built in Breathing System). The error caused two lymphatic/skin decompression illnesses and incorrect decompression profile for several other divers. To view t…