Access and Egress
Risk of:
- Serious injury.
- Drowning.
- Death.
Possible causes:
- Collapse of walkway e.g. due to lack of maintenance and inspection.
- Collapse of linkspan e.g. not using linkspan as designed, overloading, damage to linkspan or ship moves whilst still connected.
- Lack of proper access.
- No proper segregation of pedestrians and vehicles.
Chemical Agents
Risk of:
- Explosion.
- Fire.
- Adverse health effects.
Possible causes:
- Undeclared dangerous goods.
- Exposure to vehicles exhaust fumes in ship's hold or fumes from terminal machinery.
- Inadequate ventilation in ship's hold.
- Leakage of dangerous substances.
- Nuisance dust from neighbouring bulk cargo operations.
Electricity
Risk of:
- Burns.
- Fire.
- Electrocution.
- Death.
Possible causes:
- Faulty refrigerated containers and connections.
Fatigue
Risk of:
- Increased risk of accident or incident due to reduced concentration and response times.
Possible causes:
- Working long hours.
- Working night shifts.
- Shift patterns.
Fire
Risk of:
- Burns.
- Smoke inhalation.
- Death.
- Property damage.
Possible causes:
- Welding, burning or open flame work.
- Petrol spillage from vehicle.
- Flammable fuel in tanks or dangerous goods.
Human Factors
Risk of:
- Increased risk of accident or incident.
Possible causes:
- Lack of training.
- Lack of awareness.
- Inattention.
- Substance abuse.
Lighting
Risk of:
- Increased risk of accident or incident.
Possible causes:.
- Low lighting levels on board ship.
- Contrast between indoor and outdoor lighting.
Low Overhead Areas
Risk of:
- Hitting the head.
- Back pain.
Possible causes:
- Working under trailers and other low overhead areas.
Manual Handling and Ergonomics.
Risk of:
- Musculoskeletal disorders.
- Sprains and strains.
- Bruises.
Possible causes:
- Handling heavy lashing systems, chains and prop stands/trestles.
- Pulling lashings.
- Kneeling, crawling and adopting awkward positions during lashing.
- Very little space between trailers.
- Pushing cars that don't start.
Noise
Risk of:
- Noise induced hearing loss.
- Stress.
- Failure to hear communications resulting in increased risk of accident.
Possible causes:
- Communication hindered due to noise levels.
- Vehicle operations and ship's fans creating noise.
- Noise from chains used during lashing.
- Unable to hear vehicles approaching or warning shouts.
Ramps
Risk of:
- Serious injury, drowning or death.
Possible causes:
- Being hit by a vehicle whilst loading and unloading vehicles onto the ship.
- Lack of physical separation between vehicles and pedestrians or lack of safe system of work to prevent simultaneous usage of the ramp.
- Collapse of ramp due to lack of maintenance, improper use etc.
- Overloading of ramp.
- Unsafe system of work for loading.
Sharp Edges
Risk of:
Possible causes:
- Handling heavy cargo, lashings, cars etc.
- Failure to wear protective gloves.
Ship's Cargo Lift
Risk of:
- Serious injury or death due to fall from height or being crushed by the lift.
Possible causes:
- Using the cargo lift as a personal lift rather than a cargo lift.
- Working with or close to the cargo lift.
- Collapse of the lift.
- Falling through the open deck during lift operation.
Slips, Trips and Falls
Risk of:
- Minor injury to broken limb, concussion to serious injury even death.
Possible causes:
- Installed fittings, rings, lashing points, deck gratings and fittings in the cargo hold acting as trip hazards.
- Trailing cables from refrigerated containers.
- Spillages, oil and grease.
- Weather e.g. wet, slippery decks.
- Unsafe walking surfaces.
- Inappropriate footwear.
- Inadequate lighting.
Vehicle Stowage, Lashing and Unlashing
Risk of:
- Hitting head.
- Serious injury or death due to being hit by a vehicle (especially reversing vehicles) or being hit by a lashing.
Possible causes:
- Lashing and removing lashings from vehicles.
- Vessel and vehicle movement during voyage making lashings excessively taut.
- Poor lighting, working in shadow areas or under vehicles.
- Placing trestles / prop stands under trailers.
- Poorly designed vessel stowage plan.
- Several vehicles reversing at same time.
- Large vehicles being manouevred on vessels not originally designed for such vehicles.
- Restricted view from driving positions especially when reversing.
- Runaway vehicle.
Vibration
Risk of:
Possible causes:
- Operation of terminal plant.
- Inadequate or lack of maintenance of plant.
Workplace Transport
Risk of:
- Serious injury or death - being hit, runover or crushed by a vehicle or running over the edge of the quay and drowning.
- Property damage - impact with ship or property.
Possible causes:
- Lack of, inadequate or poorly designed traffic management system.
- Inadequate traffic controls.
- Uncontrolled pedestrian traffic.
- Simultaneous use of ramp by vehicles and pedestrians.
- Inadequate segregation of pedestrians and vehicles.
- Hazarous routes or areas not clearly marked or barricaded.
- Vehicles or caravan becoming uncoupled on the ship's ramp.
- Inadequate control of Ro-Ro traffic.
- Failure to properly apply vehicle and trailer parking brakes.
- Pedestrian access via the main loading ramp presenting hazards from moving vehicles.
- Vehicles operating in a confined area.
- Material failures in cargo transport vehicles.
- Reversing or manoeuvring of vehicles and trailers into stowage positions on deck.
- Lashing of vehicles - lasher not visible.
- Inadequate lighting on board ship.
- Transition from outside to inside affecting vision.
- Impaired visibility or blind spots especially when reversing.
- Trailer coupling and uncoupling on the dockside and on the ship.
- Improper use or failure to use seatbelts where provided.
- Unsafe speeds.
- Low clearance.
- Weather.
Note: This is not an exhaustive list of hazards and risks.