Marine Terminal Worker Fatally Crushed While Operating Industrial Truck [Freeport, Malta – 29 September 2020]

Posted by admin on Sep 29, 2020 in Bulletins

With great regret, Blueoceana Company has been informed by a friend at Malta that a 36 year old industrial truck operator died earlier today at that nation’s Freeport. Mr. Christ Zahra was the father of two young boys.

Our understanding at present, is that Mr. Zahra was operating an MT handler and while engaging a container within a CY stack a nearby container (or perhaps the container that he was engaging) was displaced and came down directly upon his operator’s cabin, which apparently could not sustain the load imposed upon it.

Another friend at Freeport has indicated that while newer MT handlers at that port have incorporated a substantial overhead guard (headache rack), this particular machine had none. We also understand that Mr. Zahra had been engaging six-high picks with that machine.

Moreover, a separate report coming to us makes mention of a similar, non-fatal accident that occurred at this terminal with this [no overhead guard] type of machine. That accident is said to have resulted in bruises and a great deal of operator agitation, but was apparently not enough to provide greater affirmative action.

The article linked-to below is in the original Maltese.

Immediately below that, readers will find a link that provides a roughly translated English version of that media account:

Link To Media Account:

Link To Roughly Translated English Version: