Marine Terminal Worker Struck & Killed By Reversing Reach Stacker [Lae, Papua New Guinea – “Relatively Recent” Date]

Posted by admin on Apr 13, 2019 in Bulletins

Blueoceana Company has received late word from friends in Australia, that an as-yet unnamed marine terminal worker in the employ of Bismark Maritime has been struck and killed by a reversing container reach stacker at the firm’s Lae, Papua New Guinea facility. 

The exact date of the accident is presently unknown, but we’ve been made to understand that its occurrence was “relatively recent.” There is also some conjecture that, while the machine’s backup alarm was ostensibly in good order, the worker was wearing earphones/earbuds at the time of the accident.

We’ve also acquired photographs that are said to depict the accident scene which, after careful thought as to content, we will share here (see below).

Globally; from a statistical sense, pedestrian marine terminal workers are at significant risk of being struck by the large industrial trucks that move containers throughout their respective facilities. Thus, employers, employees and their respective representational organizations are appropriately tasked in finding and maintaining a solution to the associated (and nearly always fatal) struck-by hazards that arise from such exposures. One reasonable component of such a solution, would be the hardcore banning of all personal electronic devices within active operational areas.