BURST
The Transportation Safety Board is urging stronger safety measures after a crew member was seriously injured when a lifeboat fell from a commercial vessel during a routine safety check.
The incident occurred Sept. 2, 2023 on the bulk carrier Golden Zhejiang, which was anchored in the Trincomali Channel off the southeast coast of Vancouver Island.
Two engineers were conducting a safety check on the Hong Kong-registered vessel’s free-fall lifeboat when the release mechanism was accidentally activated, causing the 29-seat, 4,400-kilogram lifeboat to slide off its launch pad and fall 19 metres into the water with an engineer inside.
The engineer, who was not secured in a seat, was found unconscious with head injuries. He was taken to hospital and sustained permanent life-changing injuries and partial memory loss.
According to the report released Wednesday, the company said the engineer failed to read the sign inside the lifeboat and mistook the emergency release wheel for a steering mechanism.
The TSB said it was unable to determine how the lifeboat was released, but identified deficiencies that caused or contributed to the incident.
It said the vessel’s management did not require crew to conduct a risk assessment before entering the lifeboat to conduct a safety check and the cables securing the lifeboat to the launch structure were not load-bearing and were inadequate to secure the lifeboat after it was inadvertently released.
The TSB also noted the engineer, who had 10 years of experience as a second engineer but joined the vessel only 12 days before the incident, had not received a safety familiarization training with the lifeboat. This was not a factor in the incident, but could lead to harm in future incidents, it said.
The report said vessel operator Columbia Shipmanagement Ltd. has implemented safety changes since the incident, including improving labelling on the release controls of the lifeboats, updating safety familiarization guidelines, and installing turnbuckles to secure the lifeboat during safety checks and inspections.