2016 Safety recommendations from the final report WIM 13/15 – m/v Corina

6. Safety Recommendations

The Commission has deemed it expedient to provide Corina vessel’s operator, Żegluga Gdańska Sp. z o.o., with recommendations on safety, which are proposal of action, which could contribute to preventing similar accidents in future. The recommendations pertain to implementation of the ship’s operator’s safety policy related to carriage of hazardous bulk cargoes and access to enclosed spaces on ships.

The State Commission on Maritime Accident Investigation recommends:

1) introducing changes to procedures included in the Safety Management System so that they include up to date requirements included in Regulation 19, Chapter III of SOLAS Convention pertaining to alarms and exercises in entering enclosed spaces and rescuing persons from them;

2) ensuring that enclosed spaces are identified on ships and the level of risk that may occur in them is assessed, depending on their locations on the ship and the way they are used, as well as ensuring that information on these spaces and hazards is displayed in a visible place on board the ship and is accessible to the crew;

3) ensure marking with warning signs of spaces, entry to which in specific operational statuses could pose a hazard to health or life of persons, and  that entries to such spaces are secured in a manner prohibiting entry without the consent of a person responsible for safety;

4)  before enrolling them on a ship, referring persons designated by the ship’s operator and responsible for implementation of the safety policy on ships (ship’s master, chief officer, chief engineer) to trainings on “entering and rescuing from enclosed spaces” and on “assessment and limitation of the risk of hazards.

The Commission has noted the efforts of Corina vessel’s operator undertaken following the accident, aiming at improvement of the ship’s operator safety management system, including development of new instructions related to enclosed spaces on ships. However the Commission sees the need for further action related both to the substance and quality of documents drafted by the ship’s operator.

Furthermore, the Commission recommends that changed are introduced to instruction I-08-2 (Instructions for procedures in case of a danger), in the scope of names of alarms and alarm signals, in order to make them consistent with the names and signals envisaged in § 13 of the Ordinance of the Minister of Infrastructure of 9 December 2014 on specific conditions of navigation of marine vessels (Journal of Laws, item 48).