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Annual release of IMCA Member data shows ‘lost time injury rate’ remained constant in 2024
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New report based on largest ever sample of marine contractor data, with more than one billion working hours contributed by almost 200 IMCA marine contractor Members
The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has today published its annual Safety Statistics Report, showing that ‘line of fire’ incidents remained the leading cause of lost time injuries (LTIs) among IMCA marine contractor Members in 2024, accounting for more than half (52%) of such injuries.
The research, which IMCA has published each year since 1996, found that the total lost-time injury rate (LTIR) across its contributing Members’ onshore and offshore operations remained unchanged at 0.3 incidents per million hours worked. This follows steady improvements since 2010, when the LTIR was more than twice as high as recorded in 2024.
Meanwhile, the total recordable injuries rate (TRIR) rose slightly (from 1.07 to 1.1 injuries per million hours worked), a pattern seen across the energy industry, although IMCA contractor Members saw a small improvement in the total recordable injury rate recorded for offshore from 1.47 injuries per million hours worked in 2023, to 1.38 in 2024.
Just over half (52%) of lost time injuries reported were ‘line of fire’ related injuries. Understanding the underlying causes of these accidents and how they can be reduced will be a priority for IMCA, working with its Members and partner organisations, in 2025. Slips and trips were the second main cause of LTIs, accounting for 22% of the total in 2024.
The fatal accident rate (FAR) halved from 0.63 fatalities per 100 million hours worked in 2023, to 0.3 fatalities in 2024. For offshore workers, the rate fell from 0.41 in 2023 to 0.18 in 2024 – the lowest fatality rate ever recorded by IMCA contractor Members.
This year’s data was supplied by 198 of IMCA’s contractor Members, who between them submitted a record 1,015,000 hours of data. The research is available to both IMCA Members and non-Members, enabling them to benchmark their performance against similar sized companies.
Reaching over one billion working hours of data is a true milestone. Collaboration and integrity are two of our core values and the willingness of our Members to share their data for the good of the industry is a clear reflection of this.
IMCA CEO Iain Grainger said: “I am delighted by the increase in IMCA Members reporting their safety statistics. Reaching over one billion working hours of data is a true milestone. Collaboration and integrity are two of our core values and the willingness of our Members to share their data for the good of the industry is a clear reflection of this.
“The key question for industry safety professionals now is ‘how do we drive down incident rates still further?’. Line of fire incidents will become a key focus for us in the year ahead, and we look forward to working closely with our Members and partner organisations to achieve genuine progress in this area.”
IMCA’s Technical Director, Jim Cullen, explained: “The annual IMCA safety statistics report provides essential input to how our sector is performing. Over the years the general downward trend in recordable incident frequencies has been encouraging and this year I’m pleased that we have had a record high number of almost 200 Member companies contributing their statistics. That said, we should not rest until all IMCA contractor Members are contributing and reporting to get the best possible picture of where to focus our collaborative future efforts on injury reduction.”
A summary of the statistics has been published and is available to Members and non-Members alike. It is available to view and download via www.imca-int.com/resources/safety/safety-statistics.
