Casualty Response
On average, most owners will only experience a significant casualty every 10 years, and some will never do so. This is an encouraging statistic, but it often means that many members of owners’ response teams will be experiencing their first, live casualty and learning on the job. Conversely, insurers and brokers specializing in marine casualty will encounter these situations regularly.
Despite any lack of direct experience in marine casualties, the standards of casualty response are improving steadily. This is partly due to better communications (there are still enough of us who remember telex), but is more down to greatly improved Safety Management Systems and, in particular, the value of drills and exercises.
Practice makes perfect and for owners who are implementing or exercising a casualty response plan, good advice is not to be too ambitious too early. Initial exercises should test basic systems,
teams and communications. Only when those are working properly should you introduce more lifelike exercises, in real time and involving a range of risks and responses. P&I Insurers are always happy to contribute our experience to marine-response training and drills.
For most crew members, experiencing a major casualty will reinforce the value of their skills and training. A small minority may be adversely affected and they will need specialist assistance, which the P&I Insurer will be ready to provide.
A significant feature of every casualty response is the period of chaos, which may be an hour or it may be three weeks, depending on the nature of the casualty, the location and the assistance required. A key feature of casualty response training is to ensure that during this period of chaos, the correct priorities are identified and the necessary and immediate steps are taken. If your priorities are first life, then the environment and then property, you will not go far wrong.
Casualty Management
No two marine casualties are the same, but the similarities are greater than the differences and a number of useful techniques can be applied to almost every casualty. Here are a few of them:
Casualty management involves an ever-increasing number of parties, especially if there is a risk of damage to the environment. A key to good casualty management is liaison, and whilst this can be done by e-mail, there are some alternatives.
Firstly, a daily telephone conference, ideally with a single dial-in number, a fixed time of day and a fixed agenda. The first two conferences may appear chaotic but very quickly the participants will learn the value of listening rather than talking. Do not use the conference to discuss what was done today, the important thing is to agree what will be done tomorrow - in this way conflicts and bottlenecks will be minimized. Because of our involvement across a range of issues, P&I insurers are often well placed to arrange and manage these conferences.
Another valuable technique is the cup of coffee. In most casualties it is a good idea for the insurers and brokers to meet as soon as practicable, if only to put a face to each name. It is surprising how the investment of 30 minutes over a cup of coffee will help solve the myriad issues that will arise over the coming weeks and months. Again, this is something that P&I insurers can and will deliver, often in conjunction with the insurance brokers.
A more ambitious technique is to attend on-site. The traditional view is that P&I insurers should not show their face at a casualty because we are “the money” and would therefore attract undesirable attention. A developing view is that there can be significant value in an early visit by the P&I Club, especially in those casualties involving regulatory and environmental agencies. Many local officials will
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