Drowning in the Maritime Industry

Drowning is a significant risk for all maritime workers. With good safety training, proper safety equipment, including floatation devices, and other precautions, the drowning risk should be minimal. If you have lost a loved one in the maritime industry to drowning, negligence may have been involved, and you may be able to recover damages under federal maritime laws.

How Does Drowning Occur in the Maritime Industry?

All types of maritime workers are at risk of drowning simply by working on or near waterways. Seamen on vessels out at sea, harbor workers and longshoremen, fishermen, divers, and oil rig workers on the outer continental shelf are all at risk of falling into water and drowning.

Sometimes, a drowning in the maritime industry is purely accidental. All safety precautions may have been taken, yet a worker still drowns. In most drownings, not enough precautions were taken, and it should have been prevented. In these instances, the employer could be considered negligent in the accident.

Falling overboard from a vessel out to sea would seem to be the typical maritime drowning incident. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records many instances of longshoremen and harbor workers drowning while ships are in port:

• A longshore worker was releasing the mooring lines for a ship at the dock’s edge and slipped and fell into the water. The concrete where the worker fell was crumbling and may have caused the fall. The worker was not wearing a life vest and drowned in the water.

• An employee on a docked grain barge was unhooking spreader cables from the barge cover when he lost his balance and fell into the water. He was not wearing a life vest, and no life ring was nearby.

• A longshoreman loading fish onto a tramper vessel fell from a ladder leading from the vessel to a tugboat and drowned. The ladder did not have the required wooden steps to make it stable and safe to climb.

• A worker fell from a crane barge moored alongside a tugboat and drowned. He was not wearing a life vest or inappropriate shoes, which would not have provided enough tread.

• An employee working aboard moored barges and tugboats fell overboard at night and drowned. He was working alone and was not wearing a life vest. Many of those available onsite were defective.

What Causes Drowning in Maritime Workplaces?

According to drowning incidents compiled by OSHA, of which the above are only a few, the most common causes of drownings in the maritime industry are:

• Lack of life vests or defective life vests
• Lack of or defective rescue life rings
• Slips and falls overboard
• Broken ladders
• Vessel collisions
• Overworked and fatigued employees
• Inadequate inspections of equipment, vessels, and the surrounding area

Negligence in Maritime Industry Drownings

Negligence is common in maritime drownings. All of the most common causes of drowning can, in most cases, be prevented. Employers are often found to be negligent when an employee drowns on the job.

Sometimes, there are multiple ways in which the tragic accident could have been avoided. In one case, the Lucas Marine Acquisition Company of Florida received 22 safety violation citations from OSHA after a worker died in a drowning.

This instance did not involve a fall overboard or a dock fall into the water. The worker was diving to do underwater construction, and the OSHA report concluded that the employer showed intentional disregard for the safety standards.

The workers were found to be improperly trained and inadequately equipped for the job. It was the second negligent drowning the company had experienced in five months.

With so many ways a company could be found negligent in a drowning, it’s no wonder there are few genuinely accidental drowning maritime deaths.

Employers in any maritime industry are responsible for providing workers with the training needed to do a job safely and for safety procedures and rescues.

They must also provide workers with safety equipment, such as functioning life vests and rescue equipment. They are responsible for maintaining surfaces to minimize the risk of slip-and-fall accidents. They must allow workers breaks and reasonable shifts to avoid the exhaustion that can lead to accidents and drowning deaths.

What Are the Rights of Dependents After Maritime Drownings?

When an employer fails to take all the necessary precautions to prevent drownings, whether at sea or in harbors, it is considered negligent behavior in the eyes of federal maritime law.

Seamen who are injured or killed on the job with negligence playing even just a small part in the incident are protected by the Jones Act. If the worker drowns, that person’s dependents are entitled to receive death benefits to cover lost wages that supported them, funeral costs, and possibly compensation for pain and suffering.

For those workers not identified as seamen, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act comes into play. These federal workers’ compensation plans provide for the dependents of workers in fatal accidents, regardless of negligence. Any drowning accident on the job is covered under these laws and allows for compensation for the victim’s dependents.

If you work in the maritime industry, it is essential to understand your rights and the rights of your dependent family members in the unfortunate event that you are injured or killed on the job.

If you have a loved one in the industry who died in a drowning accident, you have access to compensation under federal maritime law.

With the guidance of an experienced maritime law attorney, you can determine just how much compensation you are entitled to and how to get access to it. An attorney is beneficial if your employer or your deceased loved one’s employer denies compensation.