Failure to follow “basic safety recommendations” such as wearing a life jacket is still an issue in incidents at sea, the chair of the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) has said.
In the MCIB’s 2023 annual report, its chair Claire Callanan notes that failures in planning for emergencies is also “a common thread” across many investigations.
“There is clearly a challenge in delivering and embedding ….safety messages throughout the recreational sector,” she says in her introduction to the report published this week.
"There is clearly a challenge in delivering and embedding ….safety messages throughout the recreational sector"
She says that the MCIB continues to commend Water Safety Ireland and the Department of Transport Maritime Division for “their continuing work in this regard”.
The MCIB initiated investigations into ten marine casualties in 2023, eight of which were fatal incidents, she notes.
“ That is a very high figure, given we recorded no fatalities in 2021 or 2022,”she says.
Of the eight investigations that involved fatalities, three arose on fishing vessels, and five involved recreational craft, including recreational angling vessels, a recreational motor boat, and a jet ski.
“ These figures reflect again the dangerous nature of working in the fishing industry; and in the recreational sphere, the varied and different nature of the circumstances that can lead to these sad outcomes,”Callanan says.
Thanking the Garda Siochana and Irish Coast Guard, she observes that “each fatality is a tragedy for family and friends and the community in which each person lived” and “the MCIB extends its condolences to all those affected by these deaths”.
A further 51 incidents were considered by the board which involved co-operation between the MCIB and the accident investigation bodies of other states. These incidents were in general considered to be minor in nature and not warranting investigation by either the flag state or the MCIB, or, were incidents where investigations were being conducted by the flag state, she says.
The MCIB was established 25 years ago and it had published 264 reports into incidents under its statutory remit by the end of December 2023, she notes.
Draft legislation is currently making its way through the houses of the Oireachtas to establish a full-time marine accident investigation unit within the Department of Transport which will replace the MCIB.
