InterManager calls for action on accident reporting

There is a significant lag between accident occurrences onboard ships, their investigation, and the casualties report being uploaded into the Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS), shipmanagement association InterManager has warned.

InterManager has submitted its latest accident statistics, which span several decades, to the 10th session of the IMO’s Sub-Committee on Implementation of IMO Instruments, taking place in London later this month. 

According to its figures, accidents onboard ships are not decreasing, and although the number of seafarers injured in falls and injuries resulting from rescue and survival craft accidents has remained fairly consistent year on year, the casualty rate for enclosed space accidents has almost doubled.

The number of enclosed accidents occurring in 2022 and 2023 both saw 14 recorded incidents, but there was a marked increase in the actual casualties in 2023, compared to 2022, 34 as against 18, InterManager’s submission to the IMO revealed.

The report noted that a number of various accidents onboard ships are not being recorded within GISIS nor made available elsewhere, despite being openly reported. For example, out of 538 incidents gathered since 1980 involving rescue and survival craft accidents, only 19% are available in GISIS. 

InterManager added that industry statistics were undermined due to a lack of transparency and hesitation in sharing accidents.  

“It would be markedly beneficial to all analyses if this unwelcome lag could be decreased, or indeed eliminated,” the association said and recommended that categories of specific operations – such as enclosed space, fall, personal transfer, lifeboat, mooring and other – be included in the data collection database of accidents by GISIS, flag states, and other industry organisations, including shipping companies.

“Safety is very important to InterManager members and developing an effective safety culture is one of the central pillars of our general principles of conduct and action,” said Captain Kuba Szymanski, InterManager secretary general, adding: “Collating these statistics on behalf of the industry enables us to proactively assist on a number of core safety issues and we are pleased that the IMO and other industry stakeholders are making use of them to protect the lives of seafarers.”