Life Boat Drills Injuries

Crewmen Injured During Life Boat Drills and Abandon Ship Drills

Each year seamen are injured aboard ship while practicing life boat and abandon ship drills. When these accidents happen as a result of negligence or unseaworthiness, the crewmen protected by United States law are entitled to compensation under the Jones Act and General Maritime Law.

There have been so many accidents involving death and serious injury during life boat drills that the Internal Maritime Organization has now relaxed their regulations as to life boat drills. Crewmen are no longer required to be aboard the life boats during hoisting and lowering operations. IMO is investigating requirements for safe on-load release hooks, and until existing hooks have been certified to comply with a new regulation, crewmen will not be required to be aboard life boats during drills. Safety drills and life boat drills are still mandatory. The relax in the IMO standards was designed to prevent crewmen from being injured and killed in free-fall accidents while aboard life boats during hoisting and lowering operations.

Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC is one of the United States’ most experienced maritime personal injury firms. They have handled thousands of cases for injured crewmen, recovering millions of dollars in compensation. Your employer owes you a duty to provide you a safe place to work and a seaworthy vessel. A piece of ship’s equipment that fails under normal and expected use renders a vessel unseaworthy. Crewmen must be properly trained in the operation of ship’s equipment to prevent negligent injury. Most accidents at sea could be prevented if proper safety procedures were followed.

If you have been injured aboard a ship, contact the maritime lawyers at Stacey & Jacobsen, PLLC to discuss your rights to compensation under Federal Maritime Law.