SSA Marine fined over death

SSA Marine has been cited with five safety violations and fined US$92,100 over the death of a longshoreman at the Port of Long Beach in January

The longshoreman was killed at the Cosco Terminal on Pier J when, while working on a vessel, he was struck by a container knocked from a stack by the quay crane during unloading operations.

The US Department of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found that SSA Marine was guilty of one “willful violation” for failing to prohibit employees working beneath a suspended container. A “willful violation“ means OSHA considers that SSA Marine acted with “intentional knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.”

Like all West Coast terminals, SSA Marine has work rules that prohibit anybody being beneath a suspended load, but this type of accident continues to plague port operations. A similar incident occurred at a PNW port about three years ago, when a container was knocked off the ship stack by the crane onto the quay, crushing a dock worker.

Of five recent safety violations three were lesser grade “serious violations” for “exposing workers to crushing hazards when they were permitted to pass near or around the deck loads, failing to provide accident prevention courses to immediate supervisors of a cargo handling operation of more than five persons and failing to provide supervisors who oversee five or more machinery operators with training on accident prevention within 90 days of their appointments.” The fifth violation was a low grade offense for failing to keep proper records. SSA Marine may file an appeal.