After an extensive period of revision and consultation, Worksafe WA has approved
the ‘Person overboard – prevention and response: Code of practice’ under section 274 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WHS Act).
An update to the 2010 version, the new Code of Practice (CoP) is a ‘guide’ to assist those operating vessels in marine or freshwater environments. It deals with preventing people from going overboard (POB) and the need for effective emergency measures to be in place to minimise the risks of injury, harm or death if POB incident occurs.
The CoP can be used in court as an example of best practice and therefore underpins the need for owners to carry out a risk management process for POB involving identifying hazards, assessing the risks these hazards may cause, controlling the risks and reviewing control measures to maintain their effectiveness.
When eliminating a risk to health and safety is not possible, the owner must minimise the risk ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’. As such, the owner should, in consultation with the vessel crew, develop, write down and practice emergency procedures for the specific POB operations on the vessel and current use of personal protective equipment for crew such as wearable EPIRBs.
Specifically, a procedure or system to immediately alert the skipper and crew that a person has fallen overboard or is missing is an important part of a vessel’s emergency system.
You can find out more here.