Assumption Kills

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Big Pete
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Re: Assumption Kills

Post by Big Pete »

The sad truth is that it is very hard to change peoples attitudes.
I am Chief Engineer on board a ship with Multi National crew. We have the SMS, permits to work, risk assessments etc in place. I am the only Brit, but we have a Canadian and a Panamanian everyone else is from Eastern Europe.

However, on my last trip the Second Engineer was testing Bilge Alarms and sent motormen into cofferdams to test them. When I asked him if he had carried out a risk assessment, tested the atmosphere & issued a work permit, he told me it wasn't neccessary because the Motorman was only going in to test the alarms.

Similarly, when we were weighing anchor there was a problem with the chain stowing in the chain locker and the 1st Officer opened up the chain locker and sent crew in to flake out the chain without testing the atmosphere or filling out a permit.
When he was asked why he had sent people in without testing the atmosphere first he said "it wasn't neccessary, they were only going in to stow the chain".

I think there was a common flaw in their training, they are convinced that you only need a work permit if you are going to do "proper work" not to carry out an inspection, check, or stow an anchor chain. They do not appear to understand that the danger is in entering the enclosed space.

On the same ship, while I was off on leave, the Chief Engineer sent in risk assessments to the company's Health & Safety department. The system we use involves assessing the probility and severity of the hazard on scales of 1 to 5, and multiplying the 2 together. If the product is greater than 5 the job should not be done.
The other crew assessed both probability and severity as 3 giving a result of 9. They proudly sent the risk assessment into the company and carried out the job!!!! (It was to disconnect an electric motor from a gearbox).

The sad thing is that the company just filed the risk assessment and never commented. I discussed this with the Second Engineer on the other shift and he had no idea that the work should not be done if the score was greater than 5, and no understanding of how to assess the probability.

My own Second Engineer lacks sufficient understanding of English to fill one in properly.

You just have to try and train and improve the crew you are given, but sometimes it is very hard work.
BP
It is always better to ask a stupid question than to do a stupid thing.
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