Constant training can help prevent man overboard incidents
Man overboard (MOB) incidents are among the top causes of injuries and fatalities on inland towing vessels, and preventing such incidents requires constant training and vigilance by all employees, from boat crews to shoreside personnel.
That’s a conclusion of a security expert who explained how Marathon Petroleum is confronting the problem during a Sept. 1 safety webinar organized by the American Waterways Operators as part of its Virtual Summer of Safety series.
Man overboard “is your number one (risk) exposure,” said Eric Fetty, emerging response and security coordinator at Marathon’s Marine Division in Cattlesburg, Ky. “The numbers don’t lie — when you look at crew fatalities by accident type, over 50 percent of industry fatalities are due to falls in the water, so with an exposure like that you have to pay attention.”
In introducing the discussion, Brian Bailey, AWO’s director of safety and environmental stewardship, cited data collected in 2019 by the Coast Guard-AWO Safety Partnership that showed a doubling of crew fatalities from 2014-2016, with nearly half caused by falls overboard. Data from the Coast Guard and incident reports showed that 68% of MOB incidents occur at night 32% during the day, nearly 60% occur in the first half of the calendar year, indicating the influence of dangerous winter weather conditions, and the majority occur on the Lower Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.
Focus on MOB accidents began to ramp up at Marathon after a fatality in 2010. The company reviewed its safety culture and as a result, “a lot good things have come about,” Fetty said. With the help of a third-party consultant, Marathon created a program that includes training and refresher courses for everyone in the company with a special emphasis on teaching new deckhands measures to prevent and react to overboard falls.
New deckhands spend close to a month in the classroom, he said, and then continue riverside at a training pad that simulates the deck of a barge for hands-on exercises. With a diver in the water, man overboard drills are practiced using specialized equipment. The new hires also train on harbor boats before being sent out on a line boat for their first hitch.