Safety Ob­ser­va­tions on death of steve­dor­ing su­per­vi­sor in Kotka on 28 De­cem­ber 2022

22.02.2023

A stevedoring supervisor died in an accident that took place in connection to a lifting operation in the Hietanen Port in Kotka on 28 December 2022. The ConRo vessel Kraftca sailing under the flag of the Netherlands was moored at the Hietanen Port. The vessel had been unloaded. It had been agreed with the stevedoring company that the container stands and support beams stored onboard the vessel would be lifted ashore for storage. The container stands stored on the roof of the air conditioning room located in the stern of the vessel created a visual obstacle, which hindered the loading and unloading of the vessel in the Hietanen Port when using the back-up crane. The back-up crane was used due to the breaking of the higher crane.

The lifting operation that resulted in the accident took place when the evening shift arrived. The supervisor, signalman and crane operator from the stevedoring company as well as the crew members, the deck officer and the able seaman, participated in the lifting. The deck officer, the able seaman and the stevedoring supervisor were on the roof of the air conditioning room. The roof of the air conditioning room is at a height of four metres from the deck, and there are no railings around it.

Fig­ure. The fig­ure shows the place­ment of those who par­tic­i­pated in the lift­ing op­er­a­tion, the beams to be lifted as well as the lift­ing equip­ment. The sig­nal­man that par­tic­i­pated in the lift­ing was on the deck. (Im­age: the Safety In­ves­ti­ga­tion Au­thor­ity)

The crane was equipped with the lifting equipment shown in the image intended for lifting containers, with chains in the four corners. The aim was to use the lifting equipment to lift the container stands from the roof ashore.

The crew of the vessel had prepared the lifting in the morning by removing the twist locks that secured the stands and beams in place. The chains in the crosswise corners of the lifting equipment were attached to the shorter stand that was to be lifted first. When the lifting started, the beams stacked on top of the longer container stand (the beams shown at the top in the image) fell down hitting the stevedoring supervisor. The beams and the supervisor fell down to the deck of the vessel. The stevedoring supervisor died in the accident.

Deficiencies in safe lifting contributed to the accident. The Safety Investigation Authority, Finland will not initiate an investigation into the accident. The accident will be investigated by the local police, the occupational safety and health authority (Regional State Administrative Agency) and the Dutch Safety Board.

¹ ConRo = Container RoRo vessel

More information: 

Chief Safety Investigator Risto Haimila, tel. +358 2951 50730

The Dutch Safety Board has published a fact sheet on the accident. The fact sheet can be accessed from the following link (pages 4-5) https://www.onderzoeksraad.nl/en/page/23324/fatal-accident-during-hoisting-operations

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