VICTORIA — The Transportation Safety Board says informal practices and insufficient supervision contributed to two crew members falling overboard during an emergency drill on a BC Ferries vessel. The safety board says the rescue boats had recently been replaced with a heavier version, but the davits, which are cranes that project over the side of a ship, had not been changed. Although BC Ferries had voluntarily adopted a safety management system, the system failed to identify hazards related to the change in rescue boats, the safety board concludes. It says passenger and crew safety can be compromised when risk assessments, reporting non-conformities, emergency drill planning and valid checklists aren’t used. Following the incident, the safety board says, BC Ferries changed a number of policies and procedures around rescue boat operations.

Source: National Post December 28, 2019 22:18 UTC