A container ship is docked in Shanghai for repair work. A young deck cadet has been tasked with handing cleaning chemicals to his mates working down in a double bottom tank. John starts to step down the vertical ladder with a bucket and a torch on his forehead. In the middle of the descend, John misjudged a lump of mud for a steel plate and plunged 8 metres down on a hard steel tank top.
John suffered multiple fractures in his right leg, a crack in the skull and several broken bones. Not surprisingly, it took 4 hours for the rescuers to get him out of this claustrophobic space. Since the accident happened while it was national holidays in China, it would take another one week for John to receive medical attention.
What lessons have you learned from this life changing experience John? I asked.
‘Risk assessment. If a risk assessment was carried out, this accident could have been prevented’, instinctively answered John.
Great, so how do you do risk assessment now?’
“So before we do a certain critical job, we would have a meeting in the ship’s office. After the duty of chief officer at about eight o’clock, he would go down to the ship’s office. The guys from the deck team are already waiting for him. We will talk about the critical job. So we’ll be working aloft. The parties involved, bosun will be the one to delegate the task. He will say who will be on the stage, who will be up there assisting. Last time, I was just an OS [ordinary seaman], so I was just assisting and Bosun will be on stage … and then everyone signs the form.”
Notice from just this one paragraph how risk assessments can cause accidents.
I𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲
While decisions are made on the open deck, the communication happens behind closed office doors.
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲
Notice how people involved in work are made to wait for a person in position of power to come down.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 (𝘂𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱) 𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆
‘I was just an ordinary seaman’. How can I question anyone or anything even when I see things going wrong.
𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲
Even on a small ship with less than a dozen people, we have managed to create ‘parties’. If you think this is being pedantic, trying ‘family’ or ‘community’ and watch the difference.
T𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁
The bosun (crew ’s head) is not really engaging people, he is focused on allocating work. And the completing of this activity always end with signing the form.
Mindless paperwork and the quest for exercising power continue to dominate our industry. Should we even call it a risk assessment?
because I am not sure if we are learning anything at all.
