Contestants in a safety competition hosted by the UK P&I Club have shown how modern connectivity technology could save lives at sea by delivering simple solutions to some of shipping’s long-standing safety problems.
The London-based mutual challenged young industry stakeholders to hatch ideas to improve safety in shipping through competition Investing in a Safer Tomorrow. A generous prize pot of $50,000 was put on the table to encourage participation.
Getting connected
The winners were announced earlier this month at the UK P&I Club’s 150 anniversary dinner.
Santoshi Godhi took third place with his life band concept: a wristwatch-like device that connects with a ship’s man overboard system and is triggered if the wearer is unable to activate the alarm.
Similarly, the idea to take second place was a Systems Locator Assistance Monitoring Device, or SLAM, that monitors the movements of crew entering high-risk areas, such as enclosed spaces.
Suffocation caused by entry into hazardous enclosed spaces is a long-standing safety issue, for which the industry has failed to find solutions and continues to cost seafarers’ lives each year.
A serious consideration of all the judges was to ensure that any ideas selected for a prize wouldn’t be solving one safety issue and potentially introducing another safety issue down the line
Stuart Edmonston
The idea came from a team of four Singapore-based innovators, comprising Nurfatin Khairru’nisa, Muhamad Harith, Nurul Insyirah and Muhammad Syahmi.
Top spot
But it was Puiyush Jian’s idea of an alternative to the dead man alarm system found in engine rooms that scooped first prize.
Under existing systems, a dead man alarm is triggered when no movement is detected in an engine room manned by a single seafarer. But it is often ignored and in some cases switched off.
Judges described Jian’s solution as “cost-effective, simple and easy-to-install”. Jian proposes an active system that deploys a wireless hand-held transmitter programmed to raise specific alerts.
A receiver is linked to a ship’s system that triggers an alarm when a signal is received, enabling action to be taken without delay.
UK P&I Club loss prevention director Stuart Edmonston said the winning entry “addressed a current and continuing safety issue at sea, where a crew member enters a hazardous area such as engine room or pump room alone. The idea was straightforward and practical."
But will the ideas ever be realised and help to save lives?
Edmonston said that the competition sought to encourage young people to think proactively about safety rather than see the solutions brought into action.
“A serious consideration of all the judges was to ensure that any ideas selected for a prize wouldn’t be solving one safety issue and potentially introducing another safety issue down the line,” he said.
“Our aim was to engage with the young in shipping at the start of their maritime career and to encourage them to think about how safety at sea could be improved.
" Although these inventions and ideas may not reach the shelves of Amazon, but we hope they do, the objective of the competition was to raise awareness of safety at sea and to foster new talent.”
Sharing ideas
But Edmonston said the club would help developers where possible.
“If any parties wish to build upon and develop any of the ideas presented, the UK [P&I] Club would be delighted to help facilitate that where possible. The competition has given the winners a platform to share their ideas with industry leaders,” he added.
