Important Advice for Dredging Safety

Regardless of the industry in which you work, employee safety should always be a priority. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that some jobs are simply more dangerous than others. To the layman, construction sites are thought of as hazardous, but the layman doesn’t understand what it’s like to work on a boat. Everything is wet and slippery, heavy machinery is constantly running, and work doesn’t stop when the weather is less than pleasant or downright harsh. OSHA regulations and dredging insurance require particular protocols to be in place, and such standards provide great safety practices for everybody onboard to follow.

Basic Safety Standards

The most basic safety standards require wearing safety glasses and a helmet, or hard hat as it is typically called. It’s understandable that neither is very comfortable, but take it for granted that after 17 months without an incident as soon as you take off your glasses, n accident is going to happen which damages your eye within the next hour. Once that accident happens, you can’t “take it back” or wish you had left the glasses on, the damage is done. The precaution of wearing glasses is more important than losing an eye.

The same holds true for hard hats. As soon as you think nothing can fall on your head, it will. Hard hats might be uncomfortable to wear on a daily basis, but they have to be there. Likewise, life jackets are integral to a boat, especially an industrial boat

National Regulatory Rules

Finding debris in rivers, ocean, or lakes is a wonderful endeavor which helps keep the waterways clean and provides archeological finds for historians who study the beginnings of this great country. Dredging the waterways and sorting through the likely finds requires a particular amount of care and caution, as the work can be conducted unsafely and lead to injuries or even death of the hard-working men and women who ply such a trade. It only stands to reason there are national as well as local standards in place to assure occupational safety standards are maintained, and especially so when working in waters outside of state jurisdictions which require federal oversight.

The importance of maintaining job site safety is based on the idea that each employee can return home safely after they’ve finished their shift, and continue to perform their job as needed. Dredging is an important industry which benefits the American economy and environment. Just as is required for every other type of job a person might maintain, dredging is held to first world safety standards and each boat is expected to maintain a degree of safety for the men and women who work onboard as part of the daily routine.

About Merrimac Marine Insurance

At Merrimac Marine, we are dedicated to providing insurance for the marine industry to protect your clients’ business and assets. For more information about our products and programs, contact our specialists today at (800) 681-1998.