Record Number Contribute to IMCA Safety Statistics
The most common causes of fatalities and lost time incidents (LTIs) according to the annual report of safety statistics published by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) are 'slips, trips and falls', 'caught between', and 'struck by'. A record number of 74 companies - up by almost half on 2005 and reflecting the safety record of almost half of the association's contractor membership - took part in this annual exercise. Their newly published report, the tenth of its type, covers the period 1 January-31 December 2006.
The overall total recordable injury rate (TRIR) has fallen, as has the overall fatal accident rate, which was helped by the fact that no onshore fatalities were reported this year. The overall lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) has fallen slight, but broadly continues its flatline trend of recent years.
For the first time further information has been collected on fatalities and the direct causes of LTIs. This enabled IMCA to identify 'slips, trips and falls', 'caught between', and 'struck by' as the most common root causes, and ensures that IMCA committees are able to focus their work on these issues, where there remains a big difference to be made. The contractors association will be looking at how to remove the remaining obstacles faced as members aim for the 'zero-injury' goal.
IMCA thinks safety statistics are a useful insight into the performance of a company in the vital areas of health, safety and environment. Each year, IMCA members can benchmark themselves performance against these figures.
The exercise included the collection of leading indicators of health, safety and environmental performance, with some interesting trends now beginning to emerge. And, for the second year, TRIR has been calculated, enabling members to benchmark against a broader set of statistics produced by regulators and other associations, particularly in the area of small injuries.
Down to detail
In summary, the statistics reveal:
- Overall number of lost time injuries - 226
- Overall lost time injury frequency rate (overall LTIFR) - 1.02
- Range of overall LTIFR (second highest-second lowest) - 13.5-0.06
- Offshore lost time injury frequency rate - 1.06
- Onshore lost time injury frequency rate - 0.86
- Overall total recordable incident rate (TRIR) - 4.14
- Range of overall TRIR (second highest-second lowest) 40.7-0.11
- Offshore total recordable incident rate - 4.35
- Onshore total recordable incident rate - 3.06
The 2006 dataset is drawn from 74 IMCA contractor members, based upon 220 million man-hours of work overall (185.5 million man-hours offshore). This is an increase on the 2005 figures, particularly the man-hours worked and the number of contributors. The number of contributors has increased by 45%, rising from 51 in 2005 to 74 in 2006.
The increase in overall man-hours between 2005 and 2006 was 38%, and offshore working hours recorded increased by 85% from 102 million man-hours in 2005 to 185.5 million man-hours in 2006. Onshore data was provided by 64 of 74 companies (86%), slightly more than in 2005.
The data is published as an information note to members (IMCA SEL 09/07).
