News

7 October 2013

Danish shipowners now have a new database, making it easier for them to register near miss reports. Near miss reporting is an important motivator in prevention of accidents. Near misses make people better and better at spotting unsafe conditions and at reacting to prevent near miss events or injuries from happening. So near miss reporting is important for overall injury prevention.

Smaller and medium sized shipowners

The new database is especially targeted at small and medium sized shipowners that do not have their own system for reporting near misses. Shipowners get their own web page which gives them a range of completely new options for managing and dealing with events, and they can decide which they wish to submit to the joint sector database.

Shipowners with own systems 

For companies with their own internal reporting pages, the new system will continue to act as a supplement as hitherto but it will be easier to submit reports to the database. In future, big companies can use an xml file to register their events on the database. They then have a range of facilities in the system that they can use as required.

Trends and surveys

The new database also enables Seahealth to communicate trends and surveys that support the health and safety work being done by companies themselves. Seahealth will regularly extract the essentials from the database and report on lessons learned. This means it will be easier to register near misses and reduce administration.

News highlights:

• Companies can use their own ”MyNearmiss” page to view and administer their own near misses and other events and to choose which near misses are to be reported to the joint reporting database.
• Companies are now also able to use their own page to define for example what Safety Alerts they wish to receive.
• The company's ships can themselves report nearmisses to the database. Before being released for sharing on the common database, near misses can be quality assured by company staff. The company can provide ships' email addresses so that Safety Alerts can be sent direct to their ships.
• Companies will also have the option of designing their own "One Pagers”, which several shipowners already use in their safety procedures.
• Companies get a user-friendly analytical tool enabling them to avoid similar near miss events in future.

Seahealth would be pleased to demonstrate the many new possibilities to the shipowners. We also invite feedback and wishes expressed in coming months to assess how the system can be further improved.

 

What do the users say?

 

Morten Glamsø, Chief Consultant, Danish Shipowners’ Association:

”For many years, many Danish shipowners have been using electronic near miss reporting as an integrated part of managing the company's safety culture and as part of accident prevention. At the same time, there has been a willingness in the industry to share relevant near misses via Seahealth's near miss database since it was set up in 2006. The launch of the new database will make this knowledge sharing much more flexible for companies. Another significant part of the new database is the new shipowner area which will be useful for those wishing to use the system and who do not already have an internal electronic near miss system and do not necessarily have such a large shore-based organization. The Danish Shipowners’ Association would urge that the new database should be well received so that it can continue to be built up with new reports for the benefit of safety and quality throughout the Danish shipping industry.”

 

Bent Nielsen, Head of Marine Standards, Svitzer A/S:

"Near miss data helps ensure that seafarers do not suffer accidents at sea. We need to learn from each other's experience to be able to improve the working environment and safety at sea. In the Danish Shipowners Association's Health and Safety Committee, this is a fixed item on the agenda in which we basically use registered events reported to the near miss database by Danish shipowners, which actively helps reduce personal accidents in ships for the benefit and gain of the Industry".

 

Niels Heegaard, ISM Co-ordinator/DP, Royal Arctic Line A/S:

"As an active user of www.nearmiss.dk, we have been looking forward to start using the new database. The near miss system works for us as a catalyst for safety measures on board, which helps us to spot unsafe conditions and from multiple angles discuss preventive solutions and improve. The new database is a much more dynamic tool focusing on knowledge sharing and presentation".