IMCA Safety Statistics Show Improvements
Every year the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) produces an annual report of safety statistics (covering fatalities and injuries) supplied by members. The statistics for the period 1 January to 31 December 2011 were provided by 195 companies and organisations, representing around 60% of IMCA’s marine contractor membership, and based upon 583 million man-hours of work overall (431 million of them offshore). In all cases, a decrease is visible.
Fifty-five companies and organisations took part for the first time. The summary speaks for itself:
| Overall lost time injury frequency rate (overall LTIFR) | 0.64 | (0.73) |
| Overall number of lost time injuries | 370 | (393) |
| Overall total recordable injury rate (TRIR) | 2.40 | (2.74) |
| Overall fatal accident rate (FAR) | 0.51 | (1.28) |
| Offshore lost time injury frequency rate (offshore LTIFR) | 0.71 | (0.86) |
| Offshore fatal accident rate (FAR) | 0.70 | (1.29) |
| Offshore total recordable injury rate (TRIR) | 2.63 | (3.19) |
| Onshore lost time injury frequency rate (onshore LTIFR) | 0.44 | (0.43) |
| Onshore total recordable injury rate (TRIR) | 1.76 | (1.64) |
Summary of IMCA safety statistics for 2011 (last year’s figures in brackets)
Key: FAR – fatal accident rate; TRIR, total recordable injury frequency rate; LTIFR – lost time injury frequency rate
The highest incidence of lost time injuries (LTIs), of which there were 370, was caused by falls on the same level (including slips and trips) accounting for 24% of LTIs, with ‘struck by moving/falling objects’ in second place with 21%.
Of the 195 companies who contributed to the report, 57 were from IMCA’s Asia-Pacific Section; 11 from Central & North America; 85 from Europe and Africa; 32 from the Middle East and India; two from South America; and eight were their International Contractor members who cover all sections.
In common with these organisations and others in our industry, IMCA is focussing on major incidents and asset integrity. The results of such incidents are contained where appropriate in these statistics but particular learnings may be obscured by the occupational health statistics, from slips trips and falls, contained in the results. IMCA is considering some new categories to enable these results to be separated and thereby to facilitate the desired outcome – learning from a major/asset threatening incident. IMCA is also carrying out a review of its good practice guidelines which contain guidance related to major and asset threatening incidents to ensure that the necessary topics are covered.
