Hand and finger injuries

What happened

Hand and finger injuries continue to be a significant theme in the incidents shared with IMCA by its members. This is a summary of two recent examples from members.

STOP! Take the time to think things through before starting work. Your hands and fingers are the best tools you have – and you only have one set of them.

Incident 1: Crush injury to right hand small finger

A worker suffered a crushed right little finger whilst moving the moonpool door ram. The ram was placed on a flat pallet at the time, so the potential for movement was high. The movement of the ram crushed the worker’s finger causing a spit in the skin and a fracture.

What went wrong

• Although a toolbox talk had been conducted, including a basic risk assessment for manual handling activities, the full scope of the work had not been adequately assessed;
• No-one stopped to think and reassess the additional hazard: that the ram would move, was not foreseen.

Lessons

• Look at the ENTIRE situation – consider the use of ABBIE (Above, Behind, Below, Inside and Environment);
• Ensure task-specific risk assessment is sufficiently thorough;
• If the job changes – STOP, re-assess, if necessary, activate a “Management of Change” process;
• Remember you can and should STOP THE JOB if you think it is unsafe – don’t just carry on!

Incident 2: First Aid Case – OUCH! A completely unnecessary hand injury

When removing the ceiling plates in the main deck instrument room, a worker cut his hand on a ceiling plate, which had sharp edges. The worker was not wearing gloves – as should have been the case. Wearing gloves would have prevented the injury.

Lessons

• Watch where you put your hands! It’s so easy just to do it – DON’T! STOP and THINK;
• PPE is there for a reason – use it. Gloves you can replace: fingers and hands, you can’t.

Members may wish to refer to:

• IMCA video – watch your hands
• Worker cut hand on broken mirror
• LTI: Loss of fingertip and nail

You can browse the database of incidents yourself here: https://www.imca-int.com/safety-events/ and type in “finger” or “hand” in the search box to review 192 or 732 incidents respectively!