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Lifeboats and Rescue Boats: Life savers or death traps? Part 1

What comes to mind when asked what the most dangerous job of a seaman is? Is it going aloft? Getting caught in the bight of a line? Being swept away by a rogue wave?

Launching a lifeboat or rescue boat may be maritime's deadliest job of all.

Lifeboats and rescue boats have one purpose: to save lives. However, it can be argued that their risks outweigh their rewards. Because when far more seamen are killed and injured in distress craft accidents than are saved, the design and deployment of these craft warrant a hard look and they cry out for tough new standards to prevent any more senseless tragedies. The evidence demonstrates that these accidents overwhelmingly take place during testing and not during actual emergency use. Some of the culprits include failed releasing mechanisms, parting wires and faulty emergency stops which can result in crews freefalling nearly 100 feet in some cases.

The dangers have been well documented for years. The UK Marine Accident Investigation Bureau (MAIB) Safety Study of 2001 confirmed what many in the maritime industry knew: rescue craft safety is a disaster. The study covered U.K. statistics between 1989 and 1999. 12 professional mariners were killed by failures in lifeboats and their launching systems. Those fatalities comprised 16-percent of all U.K. seafaring deaths. 87 persons were injured during the period.

Not one of these accidents occurred during an actual ship abandonment or rescue operation. In every instance they happened during drills conducted by highly trained crewmembers.

".... Scrutiny of the data... suggests that anyone using a lifeboat, be it in a drill or a genuine evacuation, runs a risk of being injured or even killed...," said the MAIB report.

According to a March, 2008 article in the British publication Seaways, lifeboat accidents were the leading cause of death (along with confined spaces and falls overboard) and exceeded fatalities from fires and explosions.

The MAIB report spurred a number of studies and safety recommendations by international regulatory bodies which should have resulted in lowering the risks of rescue craft operation. However, the plethora of deadly headlines in the decade since that report--even since Sept. 2010--suggests otherwise:

-April 25, 2011: "Two Die In Christophe Colomb Lifeboat Fall." Two seafarers were killed and one injured when a lifeboat dropped into the water from the French-flagged CMA CGM Cristophe Colomb during a drill at the pier in Shenzhen, China. The company blamed davit failre during boat recovery, media reports said.

-April 4, 2011: "Lifeboat accidents kill more seafarers than Somali pirates." Quite a statement in this age of rampant piracy.

-March 28, 2011: "Volendam Lifeboat Fatality: Davit Design Issue." During maintenance, the forward fall parted and two crewmembers fell. One died, the other was injured.

-March 5, 2011: "Ocean Ambassador Lifeboat Incident: Poor change management/training, no FPD, led to deaths." Two died and two suffered serious injuries in a 93 feet fall from a variety of causes in a drilling rig accident off of Brazil.

-February 9, 2011: "Seaman dies after ship safety drill goes wrong at Royal Portbury Dock." One person was killed and two injured in a rescue boat when the davit wire parted on the Wilhelmsen Lines car carrier Tonbarra, dropping the group over 90 feet into the water at Bristol, UK. An investigation revealed that the proximity switch, which was supposed to cut power to the winch motor before the boat reached the davit stops, failed to function.

-September 13, 2010: "Seaman died during lifeboat drill." One dead, one injured on the cargo ship Belorus anchored in Aliaga, Turkey.

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Learn your rights as a seaman by ordering free copy of The Insider's Guide to Winning Your Maritime Injury Case written by Jones Act and maritime accident injury lawyer Brian Beckcom.

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