Lost time injury (LTI): Hand severed during mooring operations
- Safety Flash
- Published on 8 July 2014
- Generated on 14 February 2026
- IMCA SF 11/14
- 2 minute read
An incident has come to IMCA’s attention in which a crewman lost his right hand during mooring operations.
What happened?
The incident occurred when a service vessel was moving floating hoses away from an incoming tanker (a ‘routine’ procedure) using soft ‘pick up ropes’ attached to each hose. members of the deck crew and Bosun picked up and secured the first pick up rope. They had difficulty in securing the second hose. The Chief Mate (the injured party) came down from bridge and physically took over the job. He held the pick-up rope close to the ‘panama eye’ of the vessel with his arm through the eye of the rope. A sudden sea swell tightened the rope. His right hand was caught against the hard edge of the panama eye, and severed.
Elbow linked through pick up rope soft eye
Pick-up rope (re-enactment)
Investigation identified the following root causes:
- The Chief Mate ‘stepping down’ to crew task without preparation.
- A potential high consequence hazard was not recognised.
- The injured person did not follow accepted practice of seamanship for handling mooring lines.
- Others who might have challenged him and stopped the job were hindered by cultural norms regarding challenges to formal lines of authority.
Members are reminded to encourage personnel to look after their hands and arms. IMCA produces a range of safety promotional material on hand and arm safety, as well as a poster on mooring safety:
- Watch your hands (pocket card)
- Grinding wheel safety (pocket card)
- Line of fire (pocket card) and Watch out for pinch points (poster)
- Hand-arm vibration (pocket card)
- Mooring safety (poster)
Related safety flashes
-
IMCA SF 16/13
17 October 2013
-
IMCA SF 07/12
10 July 2012
-
IMCA SF 02/08
4 February 2008
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