Page 17 - INTERCARGO - Annual Report Report 2021 - 2022

Investigation of incidents

Learning lessons from incidents Of the five bulk carrier marine casualties which occurred as
a consequence of cargo liquefaction, four vessels carried
and casualties and sharing of nickel ore and one carried bauxite. They represented 18.5%
experience have proven to be of the 27 bulk carrier casualties in the past 10 years. Those
casualties led to the loss of 70 seafarer lives, or 76.1% of the
effective approaches to raise total loss of life.
safety awareness and are vital Grounding was the most commonly reported cause of bulk

to deepen understanding and carrier losses during the period, causing 13 of the 27 bulk
carrier losses reported, corresponding to 48.1% of the total
knowledge of existing rules, number of losses.
regulations and skills. Continued Statistics of ship losses and consequential seafarer fatal-

focus on safety awareness and ities taken from INTERCARGO Bulk Carrier Casualty Re-
ports since 1994 suggest that safety performance of the
safety measures helps to close bulk carrier industry is heading in the right direction, with
gaps in understanding and reduces a clear trend of improvement. The period 2012-2021 saw
2.7 ships lost and 9 lives lost versus 10.5 and 52 respec-
the potential for similar casualties tively during the period 1994 – 2003. However, there is no
involving bulk and ore carriers. room for complacency and there are still opportunities for
further improvement by re-evaluating and implementing en-
All too frequently however, there is a significant delay be- hanced measures to address cargo safety and safe naviga-
tween the time at which a report, or an initial report, is sub- tion, thereby striving to eliminate losses in the future.
mitted by an accident investigating organisation and the
point at which that information becomes publicly available.
Industry observation reveals that some investigations fo-
cused on the immediate causes but demonstrated a lack of
effort to understand the root cause of the incidents.

The bulk carrier industry should not be reluctant to make
bold changes to ship design in order to further improve the
safety and survivability of dry bulk vessels. Flag state re-
ports of casualties must question and strive to alter existing
SOLAS, MARPOL, LOADLINE, IMSBC Codes and conven-
tions if crew lives are to be saved.
Every year, the INTERCARGO Bulk Carrier Casualty Report
provides an analysis of casualty statistics covering the pre-
vious 10 years. During the 10-year period from 2012 to 2021,
it was reported that 27 bulk carriers over 10,000 deadweight
tonnage (dwt) were lost with the death of 92 seafarers. Car-
go liquefaction remains the greatest contributor to loss of life
and grounding remains the greatest cause of ship losses.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.intercargo.org/topics/incidents/

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