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Positive: parted mooring lines spotted before damage could occur

What happened?

Two barges were tied up and moored at an anchorage. Crew were working on a third barge when they spotted the unusual position of another barge, and suspected that a mooring line had parted.

In this particular anchorage there were a number of unmanned barges all tied to mooring buoys. Noticing that there was a serious problem and spotting the damage required a sharp eye and more than that, a high sense of responsibility. The unsafe condition reported to the office; the damage to the mooring line damage was confirmed by one of the company’s tugs, and the damaged line replaced.

Our member took the following actions:

  • Continued encouragement of acts of responsibility for company and other assets among all personnel;
  • Nominated crew of the barge for appropriate recognition and reward;
  • Made arrangements for regular rounds of the anchorage to check the condition of laid-up barges, especially before forecast high wind speeds;

Alert Information

Alert ID:1764
Published:9 October 2020
Download: IMCA SF 29/20 (687.0kB)

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Safety Event

Published: 9 October 2020
Download: IMCA SF 29/20

IMCA Safety Flashes
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IMCA Safety Flashes summarise key safety matters and incidents, allowing lessons to be more easily learnt for the benefit of all. The effectiveness of the IMCA Safety Flash system depends on Members sharing information and so avoiding repeat incidents. Please consider adding [email protected] to your internal distribution list for safety alerts or manually submitting information on incidents you consider may be relevant. All information is anonymised or sanitised, as appropriate.

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