A 26-year-old carpenter working on a cargo hold in a ship anchored in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung port died on 8 January, after a cable broke loose and struck his head.
Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC), which oversees all ports on the island, said that the incident took place around 1.40 pm on 8 January on the Savita Naree, a Singapore-flagged 2016-built Ultramax bulk carrier that arrived in Kaohsiung on 7 January.
The carpenter was conveyed unconscious to Yuan’s General Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2.56 pm. The fatality has caused all work on the ship to be suspended, as investigations into whether there were occupational safety breaches are underway.
TIPC’s Kaohsiung office said it dispatched personnel from the port site unit and the Occupational Safety and Health Department to the scene to understand the situation. TIPC said that the carpenter was working on fixing the steel coil cargoes in the third cargo hold of Savita Naree, when a cable connected to the crane suddenly broke, hitting the back of his head.
All work on Savita Naree, owned by Precious Shipping, Thailand’s largest dry bulk shipping company, has been suspended. Inspectors from the Kaohsiung City Labor Inspection Department and officials from the Maritime Port Bureau also went to the scene to conduct an accident investigation, and relevant personnel are also being questioned by the port police.
It was the second incident to hit Kaohsiung port within a week. On 4 January, a fire broke out in the engine room of a Supramax bulk carrier, Panoria, off Kaohsiung. Owned by Greece’s Magna Marine, Panoria was sailing from Indonesia to China at the time. While the 21-man crew managed to extinguish the flames, four of them suffered burns and had to be airlifted to the hospital. Inclement weather deterred the Taiwan Coast Guard from sending out more helicopters to evacuate the other 17 seafarers, who had to wait it out on the ship. On 6 January, Panoria was towed to Kaohsiung port to await damage assessment.
Alison Koo
Asia Correspondent
