Damaged flat racks. By John Showalter
Two separate incidents involving flat racks at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach in June serve as a reminder of just how dangerous the docks can be. The incidents occurred on Tuesday, June 5 and Friday, June 8. In the June 5 incident, a loaded High Cube flat rack corner casting which was being hoisted to the ship failed. It was returned to the dock with chains attached from the bottom corners. Twelve flat racks—series numbers MATU370063-6 through MATU370106-2, which were manufactured in China—have been taken out of service and required to be recertified before they can be put back into use. This precaution has been the stated position of the Coast Safety Comm. in a letter dated June 8, 2005—two years to the day of the second incident.
In the second flat rack failure, on June 8th, flat racks were being discharged from below deck and failed when they separated from their locked castings while being lowered to the deck. The flat racks crashed onto the truck chassis, requiring the UTR driver to seek medical attention, but fortunately not causing a fatality. Hoisting stacked, flat racks from below deck is not advised because there is no way for a visual inspection to be made to insure that they are properly connected. The position of the ILWU Coast Safety Committee is that stacked flat racks are to be brought up from below deck onto the ship’s hatch cover, individually lifted, or secured from their bottom corners and hoisted.
According to the position of the ILWU Coast Safety Committee, twist locks are only allowed to link stacked flat racks to each other, not as a means for hoisting them in a stack. Furthermore, they recommend that there shall be a rigging using wire or chain-leg spreaders attached to each corner of a bottom unit for hoisting them in a stack, and that personnel should stand clear at least one hatch away from the lifting, approximately 40 feet.
“Many instances of flat rack accidents go unreported,” said ILWU Safety Committee member and Local 94 President Danny Miranda, “Especially incidents where individuals get injured by multi-lift flat racks. So OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is either not getting the full report or no report at all. I would like to urge our members that if incidents like this do occur, please notify your local Coast Safety Committee representative, Joint Port Safety Committee representative, your union official, and your Joint Accident Prevention Committee.”
