Shipping still has a long way to go in terms of improving its safety record, UK Chamber of Shipping president, Grahaeme Henderson told attendees at the body’s annual summer luncheon in Edinburgh last week.
The Shell executive cited a host of “unacceptable” statistics. In the last 10 years, there have been over 2,500 shipping incidents worldwide each year, he said, and an annual average of 119 ships completely lost.
“Our shipping industry has a fatal accident rate 20 times that of the average British worker and 5 times that of construction,” Henderson added. ‘In the last 10 years globally, there have been 60 seafarer fatalities and 145 serious injuries from testing of lifeboats alone! ”
The Chamber president then called on the industry to work together “to make a significant step change improvement in safety,” for example by joining in on the new Safety Culture Forum designed to share best practice that the chamber has set up this year.
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