InterManager calls for action on accident reporting

There is a significant delay between events on board ships, their investigation and the uploading of accident reports to the Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS), warned the ship management association InterManager.

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

According to the institute’s figures, the number of accidents on board ships is not decreasing. Although the number of seafarers injured by falls or injuries resulting from accidents involving rescue and survival craft has remained relatively constant compared to the previous year, the number of victims in accidents in enclosed spaces has almost doubled.

InterManager’s filing with the IMO shows that there were 14 recorded accidents in enclosed vessels in 2022 and 2023. However, there was a significant increase in the number of actual casualties in 2023 compared to 2022, namely 34 compared to 18.

The report found that a number of different shipboard accidents are not recorded in GISIS or made available elsewhere, despite open reporting. For example, of 538 incidents recorded since 1980 involving rescue and survival craft accidents, only 19% are available in GISIS.

InterManager added that industry statistics were being hampered by a lack of transparency and reluctance to share accident data.

“It would be of great benefit to all analyses if this unwelcome delay could be reduced or even eliminated,” the association said, recommending that categories of specific operations – such as enclosed spaces, falls, passenger transport, lifeboats, berthing and others – should be included in the accident data collection database by GISIS, flag states and other industry organizations, including shipping companies.

“Safety is very important to InterManager members and developing an effective safety culture is one of the central pillars of our overall principles of conduct and action,” said Captain Kuba Szymanski, Secretary General of InterManager, adding: “Compiling these statistics on behalf of the industry allows us to proactively help with a number of key safety issues and we are pleased that IMO and other industry stakeholders are using them to protect the lives of seafarers.”