Incident Category

Any incident within the last 5 years will be considered in in the Safety Score. We encourage the pro-active submission of incidents and incident investigations and will credit a small positive adjustment to vessels with proactively supplied incident closeouts. Proactive submission of close out will allow smooth vetting process which would otherwise stall pending submission of closeout by vessel Manager/Operator and its review by RightShip; in case an acceptable post-incident RightShip Inspection is required for positive vetting recommendation timely submission would allow time for arranging and conducting such inspection prior to vetting. 

Definitions for Incident categories

Category A incident is an event where there is either:  

  • A loss of life, a loss of a person from a ship; incidents with significant impact on health of multiple persons, including life changing events  
  • A total loss of any of the involved ships and/or marine infrastructure   
  • An incident requiring abandoning the ship  
  • Deliberate pollution, severe pollution to the environment, potential for large pollution*  
  • Crew abandonment  
  • A serious breach of law  
  • A sequence of events with aggregate impact greater than Category B.  

  
Category B incident is an event where there is either:  

  • Work related injuries with medically diagnosed condition/s or permanent disability leading to inability or limitation to be re-employed at sea under original duties  
  • Significant damage to any of the involved vessels  
  • Extensive accommodation damage  
  • Severe structural damage  
  • An event such as explosion, fire, underwater penetration of the hull, flooding  
  • A breakdown, loss of propulsion or manoeuvrability necessitating towage or shore assistance  
  • Serious pollution*   
  • any other incident classed as serious including avoidable events with causes within the control of management   
  • Sequence of events aggregate impact greater than Category C.  

  
Category C incident is an event where there is either:  

  • A Lost Time Injury except cases in Category A and B  
  • Pollution less than that of Category B*  
  • Recorded pollution of/by wash water (not covered above), MARPOL Annex VI, ballast water, garbage  
  • A breach of primary pollution containment, with no loss to the environment  
  • An event causing minor damage to vessel/s such as a contact, early contained fire or any other incident less serious than those listed in Categories A and B  
  • Slow down of main engine(s)/ propulsion limitations – depending on impact on safety of local navigation.  

  
Category D incident is an event where there is:  

  • No or negligible effect on the vessel's operations: A medical first aid case or lost time injury not related to work, minor operational leaks or near misses. These events are excluded from the Safety Score calculation.          

Category U incident:

  • "U” refers to Uncategorised, Undefined, Uncertain information received about an event, however more information or assessment is needed to determine the nature of the event, if the event should be recorded as an incident within the RightShip Platform, and if so to define the applicable category.
  • Category U events have no effect on vessel safety score or DOC subscore, however may require further assessment during vetting and/or screening.

  • Category U events are included for transparency, and where an incident and requires close out, the category will be updated. 

                                         
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* - Severity of pollution:   
Deliberate/wilful pollution – self-explanatory, including “magic” pipes;   
Severe pollution – damage to the environment which, as evaluated by the coastal State(s) affected or the flag State, as appropriate, produces a major deleterious effect upon the environment, or which would have produced such an effect without preventive action (as defined by EMSA EMSIP). Also, loss of secondary containment for gaseous cargoes. 
 Serious pollution – pollution by MARPOL Annex I, II, III, IV and/or chemicals (IBC and BCH Codes).  
 As a part of quality assurance RightShip may undertake reviews of closed incidents and may amend an incident category upon review and/or following our consideration of new information  

Impact of an incident on safety score is related to the severity of an incident. Category A is the highest, category D even has no effect. Timewise: the highest impact is during the 1st six months after the incident, decaying at 6 month and then annually from the 1st anniversary. Complete relief is after 5 years since the incident. The incident will continue to affect the DOC at the time of the incident after DOC for the vessel is changed.

Incidents which were outside of management/crew control, e. g. damages caused while moored - by colliding vessel are recorded in RightShip Platform however  are marked as having no effect on safety score. In most cases this is done after investigation report has been received. For positive vetting recommendation an investigation and analysis with preventive actions is required in any case in line with ISM Code requirement to have all non-conformities, accidents and hazardous Occurrences reported, analysed and measures intended to prevent recurrence implemented.

Once an incident of Category A, B (or C) having taken place in the last 36 (60) months is recorded against the vessel, the vessel’s Safety Score will drop to SS2/5 or SS1/5, see  https://help.rightship.com/en/articles/4676100-safety-score-1-and-2. In case Category C incident is received simultaneously with the acceptable close out, such drop on safety score may be avoided if recording the incident and its closing will be done at the same time. RightShip Platform will calculate the effect of the closed incident on the safety score. At the time of Safety Score decreasing to SS1/5 or 2/5 an activity “safety score review” will be generated.

Most of category A and B incidents* require an acceptable post-incident RightShip Inspection (SIRE for tankers) for positive vetting recommendation when closed. A number of such incidents with non-tanker vessels will require verification of preventive measures implementation onboard during RightShip Inspection to be closed in RightShip Platform.
*- which are not marked as not affecting safety score  

Failure to submit an acceptable root cause analysis, corrective and preventive measures for Category C incident may result in implementing the requirement to have an acceptable RightShip Inspection for positive vetting recommendation and/or for having the incident closed in RightShip Platform.

What to do:
Preliminary report even without close out - will credit a small positive adjustment to vessels.
When submitting close out exhaustive information and analysis will help correct categorisation from early stages and once the incident is closed will relieve from the need to revert to the event and to engage into another submissions and reviews.

When the incident is closed in RightShip Platform the Platform will initiate Safety Score review and depending on the severity/number of incidents in the last 60 months will either run the review or trigger request to RightShip Vetting Team to carry out 2-ste review. The safety score will be recalculated taking this closed incident into account together with potential credit. 

How to improve Safety Score after Category A or B or any category in case it was the third incident in the last 60 months is closed? Satisfactory close out – preferably with best industry practice quality and an acceptable post-incident RightShip Inspection including verification of recurrence preventing measures onboard during this inspection. Depending on the outcome of the Inspection Safety Score review will be processed. In case of an acceptable RightShip Inspection outcome on the border line of acceptance such Safety Score review will not be triggered.

Case studies
Loss of propulsion resulting in grounding, Category B. Pre-incident safety score 3/5, changed to 2/5 upon incident Satisfactory investigation report with supporting information received, the vessel was subjected to RightShip inspection with satisfactory outcome, Safety Score restored to 3/5 after RightShip Platform ran Safety Score review.

Collision with damages requiring immediate repairs, Category B. Pre-incident safety score 4/5, changed to 2/5 upon incident. Satisfactory investigation report with supporting information received. Acceptable RightShip Inspection, safety score increased to 3/5 after RightShip Platform ran Safety Score review.

Contact With pier, Category C incident, however 3rd in 60 months. Pre-incident safety score 3/5, changed to 1/5 upon incident. Satisfactory investigation report with supporting information received. Acceptable RightShip Inspection, 2-step safety score review was carried out by RightShip Personnel, Safety Score increased to 3/5.

Fatality Category A incident.  Pre-incident safety score 5/5, changed to 1/5 upon incident. Satisfactory investigation report with supporting information received. Acceptable RightShip Inspection, 2-step safety score review was carried out by RightShip Personnel, Safety Score increased to 3/5.

Damage to auxiliary engine/blackout/loss of propulsion Category C – third incident in the last 60 months.  Pre-incident safety score 3/5, changed to 1/5 upon incident. Satisfactory investigation report with supporting information received. Acceptable RightShip Inspection, 2-step safety score review was carried out by RightShip Personnel, Safety Score increased to 3/5.