Page 17 - INTERCARGO - Annual Report 2022

ANNUAL REVIEW

Design & Construction Investigation of incidents

INTERCARGO monitors the The IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee, in 2016, confirmed Learning lessons from incidents Of the five bulk carrier marine casualties which occurred as
that IACS’ Common Structural Rules for Bulk Carriers and a consequence of cargo liquefaction, four vessels carried
development of rules and Oil Tankers (CSR) conformed with SOLAS Regulation II-1/3- and casualties and sharing of nickel ore and one carried bauxite. They represented 18.5%
guidelines for bulk carriers and 10 Goal-based ship construction standards for bulk carriers experience have proven to be of the 27 bulk carrier casualties in the past 10 years. Those
and oil tankers and thus provide a defined minimum level of casualties led to the loss of 70 seafarer lives, or 76.1% of the
associated on-board equipment safety in terms of design and construction. effective approaches to raise total loss of life.
on a continuous basis, with Part of the maintenance and further development of the safety awareness and are vital Grounding was the most commonly reported cause of bulk

a particular emphasis on the CSR includes periodic rule changes that usually occur year- to deepen understanding and carrier losses during the period, causing 13 of the 27 bulk
ly and INTERCARGO takes an active role in the rule change carrier losses reported, corresponding to 48.1% of the total
Common Structural Rules Bulk process. knowledge of existing rules, number of losses.
Carriers and Oil Tankers. Prior to making any rule change, IACS releases Rule Change Pro- regulations and skills. Continued Statistics of ship losses and consequential seafarer fatal-
posals for Industry review. For the last several years INTERCARGO focus on safety awareness and ities taken from INTERCARGO Bulk Carrier Casualty Re-
has performed an in-depth review of the Rule Change Proposals ports since 1994 suggest that safety performance of the
and provided feedback to IACS, with the last review having taken safety measures helps to close bulk carrier industry is heading in the right direction, with
place over the Spring/Summer of 2022. Key elements that INTER- gaps in understanding and reduces a clear trend of improvement. The period 2012-2021 saw
CARGO appraises include, maintaining minimum safety require- 2.7 ships lost and 9 lives lost versus 10.5 and 52 respec-
ments and compliance with SOLAS. the potential for similar casualties tively during the period 1994 – 2003. However, there is no
In addition to involvement with the CSR, INTERCARGO’s involving bulk and ore carriers. room for complacency and there are still opportunities for
further improvement by re-evaluating and implementing en-
Secretariat and members of the Management Committee
All too frequently however, there is a significant delay be- hanced measures to address cargo safety and safe naviga-
sit on a number of the individual Class Societies commit-
tween the time at which a report, or an initial report, is sub- tion, thereby striving to eliminate losses in the future.
tees and provide input to other Class Rules related to the
mitted by an accident investigating organisation and the
For more information on this topic please visit: design and construction of ships with an emphasis on those
point at which that information becomes publicly available.
https://www.intercargo.org/topics/design/ matters related to bulkers.
Industry observation reveals that some investigations fo-
cused on the immediate causes but demonstrated a lack of
effort to understand the root cause of the incidents.
The bulk carrier industry should not be reluctant to make
bold changes to ship design in order to further improve the
safety and survivability of dry bulk vessels. Flag state re-
ports of casualties must question and strive to alter existing
SOLAS, MARPOL, LOADLINE, IMSBC Codes and conven-
tions if crew lives are to be saved.
Every year, the INTERCARGO Bulk Carrier Casualty Report
provides an analysis of casualty statistics covering the pre-
vious 10 years. During the 10-year period from 2012 to 2021,
it was reported that 27 bulk carriers over 10,000 deadweight
tonnage (dwt) were lost with the death of 92 seafarers. Car-
go liquefaction remains the greatest contributor to loss of life
and grounding remains the greatest cause of ship losses.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.intercargo.org/topics/incidents/

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