The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its investigation report on an accident that claimed the life of a crewmember on the Ro-Ro vessel Laureline off the coast of Purfleet, England, on July 13, 2024.
Shortly after 17:00 local time on the said date, a crewmember on board the Malta registered Laureline was fatally injured when he was crushed between the rear of a moving trailer and the vessel’s structure.
The accident happened while Laureline was alongside, loading and discharging trailers using tugs driven by shore workers under the direction of the ship’s crew.
The MAIB said the deceased crewmember had passed behind the trailer, probably assuming that it was safe to do so because it had completed manoeuvring. The tug driver was therefore unaware of the crewmember’s position and reversed the trailer to realign it, and this action ended up crushing the crewmember against the vessel’s structure.
The vessel operators had instigated a new procedure for vehicle deck safety. The MAIB said, however, that there were weaknesses in its training and implementation, and it was not well understood by the crew working on the vehicle deck who routinely entered the danger zone around moving vehicles.
The tug driver’s knowledge of danger zones and the requirement to stop when a crewmember was out of sight did not align with their actual working practices.
The MAIB found that supervision on the vehicle deck was ineffective, and the vessel’s management company had not provided effective assurance to confirm that the new safety procedure had been understood or fully implemented on board.
Industry guidance on Ro-Ro vehicle deck operations relied heavily on the misconception that the drivers depend on marshallers to safely position their trailers and will stop their vehicle if they lose sight of their marshaller.
The MAIB previously investigated a similar accident on board the vessel Clipper Pennant. This resulted in a recommendation to the UK Chamber of Shipping and to Port Skills and Safety (PSSL) to develop a jointly agreed and consolidated industry code of practice for vehicle deck safety on Ro-Ro vessels.
The recommendation has been superseded by an updated and amended recommendation to the UK Chamber of Shipping and PSSL for the development of an industry code of practice considering the additional safety lessons resulting from the Laureline investigation.