lift – Maritime Accident Casebook

Another Victim Of A Ship’s Elevator

Jan 212016

Within days of the gruesome Carnival Ecstasy tragedy a shipboard lift/elevator claimed another victim by crushing. Yet again the issue of safety when working on or around lifts is highlighted.

Steve Summerside, a 45-year old engineer was working on a lift aboard the Irish Ferries owned Ulysses, the biggest vessel of its kind when launched in 2000. Ulysses was in dry dock for its annual refit. Details are scanty but reports say that Summerside became trapped between the lift and the lift shaft and was crushed.

Carnival Ecstasy Incident – Barriers to Safety

Accident Investigation, Accident report, cruise liner, cruises line,, crush, crushing accident Comments Off

Jan 102016

Perhaps the most important part if the viral video of the Carnival Ecstasy tragedy in which an electrician was crushed to death in an elevator is not the sheet of blood running down the elevator doors but the final image of the barriers in place outside the elevator doors. That is the image that should be burned into our memories because had the elevator been isolated and inoperable then 66-year old Italian crewmember Jose Sandoval Opazo may not have died in such horrific circumstances.

Investigations are underway which will certainly examine onboard procedures for elevator maintenance, the vessel’s SMS, the design of the elevators and why the elevator was not isolated in such a way as to prevent its mechanism being energised accidentally or deliberately. It is, however, just the latest tragedy of its kind in both the maritime and offshore industries. Continue reading »