LTI – Struck when anchor wire end pulled free of drum clamps

The incident occurred when crew were working on replacing out several 58mm anchor wires. The injured person was walking behind an anchor winch which had a single turn of wire remaining on it. The vessel moved off the quay. Tension came on the wire, which was connected to a spooler ashore. The stoppers in use failed, and the wire end pulled free of the already loosened clamps, whipping over the drum. He was struck across the shoulders/lower neck and suffered several skull fractures when he was pushed into an adjacent bulkhead by the impact, before falling to the deck semi-conscious.

• The crew had safely replaced three of the 58mm wires over the previous five days without incident.
• The first aid and subsequent hospital care were excellent, and the injured person left hospital three days later with no lasting ill effects.

• A generic ‘mooring operations’ risk assessment was being used. Toolbox Talks had been conducted and documented, but these were based around a clearly inadequate risk assessment (and nobody questioned it during the TBT).
• The stopper arrangement was inadequate. Wires must only ever be stoppered to a suitable strong point using chain stoppers, as detailed in the Code of safe working practices for merchant seafarers (COSWP) 2021.
• Safety chains had not been deployed behind the winch. At that stage of the operation, there was a ‘Line of Fire’ hazard (an alternative route would only have taken about twenty seconds more).
• Insufficient attention was being paid to the tension on the wire by the spooler operators.
• Perceived time pressures and fatigue may also have been factors.