Six years without fatalities in offshore wind, lost workday injuries rise in 2019

G+, an organisation dedicated to health and safety performance in offshore wind, has released the 2019 statistics for the sector which show there were no accidents with fatal outcome last year, as well as the five years before that. However, lost workday injuries have risen in 2019, compared to the previous years and, especially, compared to 2018.

The members of G+ have reported a total 865 incidents in the last year, with 62 being lost workday injuries. The lost workday figure stood at 39 in 2018 and ranged from 41 to 49 in the four previous years. Safety statistics prior to 2019 reflect the number of incidents, not injuries, G+ noted. Still, the organisation pointed out that the figure for 2019 is “disappointing”.

“Whilst we continue on a general trend of improvement in our safety performance, 2019 does show an increase in the reported number of injuries, especially those relating to lost workdays. We are therefore disappointed with our 2019 incident data. Especially following the significant progress made the previous year”, said Tove Lunde, Chair of G+ and Head of Equinor’s Safety, Security and Sustainability department in the New Energy Solutions business unit.

“The difference is in part driven by a change in the metrics used to collate and analyse the data, but is nonetheless still a focus of discussion and attention, with members scrutinising reported incidents to establish if appropriate G+ guidance was in place and if being followed”, Tove Lunde explained.

The leading of the top three work processes during which the highest numbers of incidents were recorded are lifting operations (93) and the first of the top three areas where incidents occurred is a wind turbine (291).

Some 245 incidents happened on vessels, of which 108 involved crew transfer vessels, while 274 occurred onshore.

G+ reports 91 incidents happened during access/egress, and 76 during manual handling.

Of the total 865 incidents in 2019, 41 resulted in an emergency response or medical evacuation.

On operational sites, there were 463 incidents, 376 occurred on construction sites, and 26 were reported to have happened on development sites.

Looking at incidents resulting in asset damage, G+ reports 141 such cases for 2019.

“As installed capacity increases around the world, and the global workforce grows, so too does the potential for exposure to the hazards associated with operating in offshore environments”, Tove Lunde said.

Restricted workday injuries have dropped to 23 in 2019 from 34 in 2018. Medical treatment injuries continue on a downwards trend, making 2019 the year with the lowest number on record, G+ states.

The curve is going down for high potential incidents as well, with 252 recorded in 2019, while there were 344 such instances in 2016. G+ defines high potential incidents as those that had the potential to cause a fatality or a life-changing injury.

High potential incidents mostly occurred on wind turbines and vessels, especially crew transfer vessels. Last year, the figures for these areas have fallen by 2 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, compared to 2018.

G+ says crew transfer vessels are the area with the highest number of high potential injuries, the highest number of emergency response or medical evacuation injuries, and the highest number of overall injuries in 2019.

As crew transfer to and from offshore wind farms is done on a regular basis, a large number of people can be impacted and there is a higher possibility of an incident happening. One crew transfer vessel incident alone resulted in 15 lost workday injuries in 2019, according to G+.

The organisation, which has issued two editions of a guidebook for the use of small service vessels, said it will continue to work closely with contractors in developing and improving guidance in the field of crew transfer.