Reportable and Recordable incidents -how, who and where!

 

Required procedures and authorities for incident reporting

There are three basic types of "Incident" report - 'reportable' (injury and damage), 'reportable any other incident/near miss' and 'recordable'.

REPORTABLE

All cases of accident involving ANY injury to person are reportable to the Region (copied to the ARA) and, if below Teddington, also to the PLA (see below).  On 19th September 2005, "serious" damage was agreed by Council to be defined as damage at a VALUE of repair of greater than £99 i.e.,  if  the commercial value of the repair is £100 or more, it is reportable.  It is value because many clubs have DIY repairs done by club members at zero cost.  The PLA threshold is much higher at £500 so only send a form to the PLA if there is an injury or £500 worth of damage.

Regional

Reportable incidents shall be notified in writing (hard copy) to the Thames Regional Rowing Council Safety Adviser at the address on the TRRC website. (An additional electronic version would be appreciated at this email addresss.)  In the first instance, action will be taken at Regional level. More serious matters will be referred by the Region to the ARA National Water Safety Adviser.

A standard country-wide form (Appendix 4) is available from the ARA Web site. Completion of this form is also a requirement of the ARA’s insurers. (Return the original to Regional Water Safety Adviser and a copy to the ARA).

 

REGIONAL General Incident/ Near Miss (a new TRRC safety initiative)

Council have endorsed the proposal for the RWSA to adminster a system similar to that of the PLA for all General Incident /Near Miss reports. Any out of the ordinary incident (General Incident) needs to be reported on this form or on line as well as being put in the recordable accident book in hard copy. A 'near miss' can be defined only by common sense of the rowers themselves.  An example would be if two crews had to "hold it up hard" and just avoided an accident or one crew nearly hit a post in the river or similar. This sort of incident is almost never reported as there was no damage but the region now want ALL such 'trivial' non-accidents to be reported. It is hoped and expected that the RWSA will get hundreds of these general accident and near miss reports and, from these data, will be able to suggest actions to avoid actual accidents in the future. Your whole-hearted cooperation is requested in this new investigation of our safety. It is not just another bit of unneccessary form filling! Please download the the "Regional General Incident / Near Miss Report Form" and send it to the RWSA at  this addresss.

PLA Reportable

If your incident is on the Thames below Teddington lock, note that vessel masters and those in charge of vessels and craft using the Thames are required, under the provisions of River Byelaw 7, to report specific incidents to the PLA. Only do so if there is injury to person and/or damage of £500.

In addition to this legal requirement, all river users are invited to report any navigational incidents or occurrences, including near misses, so that any safety matters can be properly addressed.  See this link.

For the specific categories there in - any injury to persons and damage greater than £500, please also send a copy of the ARA form to the Port of London Authority. Alternatively, you can use their own PDF or Word Incident forms

PLA  Incident or "Near miss" form

All  incidents of significance - dangerous debris on the river bed etc. and, indeed,  any cases of "near misses" even though no damage has occurred are invited to be reported either dirctly (copy to us) or indirectly via the TRRC to the PLA as a plethora of such minor reports e.g. bad navigation or alleged bad wash from a motor vessel is not a particulary welcome burden for the PLA. It has been agreeed that the Region will handle the minor ones, collate them and meet the PLA Harbour Master Upper at regular intervals. For this purpose the PLA have entered into an agreement with the Thames Regional Rowing Council's Regional Water Safety Adviser to send them to him at the address safetyadviser(at)thames-rrc.org. The form is available in Word format that can be filled in and sent electronically to the RWSA. Do not send it electronically to the PLA! It can be found here. They will be sent on quarterly by the RWSA to the PLA. Do not send near miss reports to the ARA.

MAIB Reports  (Reportable)

Marine Accident Investigation Branch - Reportable incidents

MAIB have just enacted new legislation making Harbour Authorities responsible for reporting all accidents in a port. Any incident involving a craft of 8m or more in length is reportable. In the main, the only exemptions are for privately owned pleasure vessels, which would include rowing boats. However if a rowing boat and a commercial passenger craft have an altercation it would become reportable - and there are penalties if it is not done. If there is any doubt about whether an incident might be reportable, please tell the PLA about it immediately.

RECORDABLE

Anything out of the ordinary safe operation is recordable - a damaged fin, a cut foot, a scrape on the hull putting in the boat on the rack etc etc

 

Record keeping

Clubs should maintain a log book in which all such incidents are recorded. The ARA has suppled such a book to every club. Keeping such records will assist both the Club and the ARA to identify trends on a local and national level. The observation of trends and unforeseen incidents form a valuable part of any future risk assessment.

Reports must contain;

Reports are to be filled in as soon as practical after the event whilst memories are fresh, certainly within 24 hours and sent at the latest within 7 days. Copies should be kept for at least four years.