Laureline

The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has published its investigation report on an accident that claimed the life of a crew member of the 'Laureline' off the coast of Purfleet on July 13, 2024, shortly after 5 p.m. He was fatally injured when he was crushed between the rear of a moving trailer and the vessel’s structure. The accident happened while 'Laureline' was in port, loading and discharging trailers using tugs driven by shore workers under the direction of the ship’s crew. The MAIB said the deceased crew member had passed behind the trailer, probably assuming that it was safe to do so because it had completed manoeuvring. The tug driver was therefore unaware of the crew member’s position and reversed the trailer to realign it. The vessel operators had instigated a new procedure for vehicle deck safety. The MAIB said, however, that there were weaknesses in its training and implementation, and it was not well understood by the crew working on the vehicle deck who routinely entered the danger zone around moving vehicles. The tug driver’s knowledge of danger zones and the requirement to stop when a crewmember was out of sight did not align with their actual working practices. The MAIB found that supervision on the vehicle deck was ineffective, and the vessel’s management company had not provided effective assurance to confirm that the new safety procedure had been understood or fully implemented on board. Industry guidance on Ro-Ro vehicle deck operations relied heavily on the misconception that the drivers depend on marshallers to safely position their trailers and will stop their vehicle if they lose sight of their marshaller. The MAIB had previously investigated a similar accident on board the 'Clipper Pennant'. This resulted in a recommendation to the UK Chamber of Shipping and to Port Skills and Safety (PSSL) to develop a jointly agreed and consolidated industry code of practice for vehicle deck safety on Ro-Ro vessels. The recommendation has been superseded by an updated and amended recommendation to the UK Chamber of Shipping and PSSL for the development of an industry code of practice considering the additional safety lessons resulting from the 'Laureline' investigation.

The "Laureline" allided with bollards when sailing from the port of Dublin on April 5, 2019. The ship suffered somedDamage to her starboard quarter with dents and a breach above the waterline. The ship which had entered port in the frame of its Zeebrugge-Dublin service on April 4 at 8.50 p.m., finally left Dublin on April 7 at 2.45 a.m. after repairs were carried out, and arrived in Zeebrugge on April 8 at 1.30 p.m. Photo: http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=2989150

Dublin Port today announced that CLdN, the Luxembourg-based short-sea Ro-Ro shipping company and owner of the “Brexit Buster” MV Celine, has added its newly built ship “MV Laureline” onto its direct Ro-Ro freight service from Dublin Port to the Continental European ports of Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. After MV Celine, the MV Laureline is now the second biggest freight ferry to service Dublin Port. Having arrived on her maiden call overnight, she is expected to depart Dublin Port later today, Friday 29th March 2019 for the port of Zeebrugge.