Towing Vessel Safety Today, By the Numbers
A famous racecar driver once deadpanned, “That which is in the rearview mirror is not my concern.”
Here in the inland marine industry, we also like to keep our eyes on the forward horizon, but it is also instructive to look back every now then, especially with measurable metrics at our fingertips. Fortunately, the American Waterways Operators (AWO) and the U.S. Coast Guard collaborate annually to measure such important things.
On August 5, 2024, AWO and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) issued their annual report that benchmarks and further serves as the annual safety report card for the domestic towing industry. It is a good time to look at these numbers, especially eight long years after the deadline for the so-called ‘subchapter M’ towboat rules to take effect. MarineNews last made these comparisons in October of 2018. Let’s look at what’s changed; and what has not.
The National Quality Steering Committee (NQSC) has always used three measures to track overall trends in safety and environmental protection. These useful indicators of towing industry trends include
- Crew fatalities per 100,000 towing industry workers,
- Gallons of oil spilled from tank barges per million gallons transported, and
- The number and severity of towing vessel casualties.
This is helpful, because it provides a linear, apples-to-apples look at a very important metric.
Scouring towing industry data and measures for calendar years 1994 to 2023, the report also includes summary statistics on crewmember injuries, which the NQSC began tracking in 2006. With subchapter M codified as a means to bring (better) safety to more than 5,000 previously uninspected vessels, it will be interesting to see what the USCG subM regimen has brought. That said; the industry has done a pretty good job of policing itself over time. Stay with us here:
Crew Fatalities
In 2023, there were four towing vessel crew fatalities. Hence, as can be seen in Chart 1, the rate of fatalities aboard U.S. towboats continues to trend downwards, but not appreciably since 2018. Table 1 shows the fatality rates per 100,000 FTE calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for all workers from 2012 to 2022.
Table 1 also shows the fatality rates for the transportation sector and towing industry. One death is one death too many. For 2022, however (the latest number available), the towing industry fatality rate is 3.3, which is less than 25% of the transportation sector and slightly less than the rate for all fatal work injuries. It’s a dangerous world out there, but since we last reported these numbers in 2018 (using 2016 data), the towing industry has shown marked improvement. Bravo Zulu to our inland friends. Is this a function of the Subchapter M rules? Read on to see if a trend is developing.
On the environmental front, and in 2018, the U.S. Coast Guard reported 84,319 gallons of oil were spilled as a result of 49 tank barge pollution incidents in 2017. Fast forward to 2023, and just 5,799 gallons (- 94%) of oil were spilled, from 36 (- 27%) operational tank barge pollution incidents.
The projected oil spill rate for 2022 was approximately 0.05 gallons of oil spilled for every million gallons transported, and the projected spill rate for 2023 was 0.10 gallons. The tank barge oil spill rate is calculated using USCG data, along with USACE data. Let’s look back to 2017, where the projected oil spill rate was approximately 1.13 gallons of oil spilled for every million gallons transported.
It is important, however, to compare apples-to-apples when talking about total spill rates, and spill volumes. We must differentiate. In the years that span 2014 through 2021, the volume of oil being transported by barge on U.S. waterways [Table 2] has decreased by about 22%. That’s no small number. The overall spill volume is down over time; partially a function of the lower volumes carried. Nevertheless, the oil spill rate continues to be relatively low – and declining.
In terms of safety, a vessel incident is defined as a casualty involving a towing vessel or barge engaged in carrying freight. Incidents where ONLY a crew member death, injury, or operational tank barge spill occurred, without a precipitating or associated towing vessel or barge incident, are not included in this measure since they are included in other sections of the report. Table 4 shows the number of towing vessel incidents reported, as classified by the AWO-USCG Severity Scale. The Severity Scale, was developed by the NQSC to assist in the classification of these incidents. Towing vessel incidents include ALL reportable marine casualties that involve a towing vessel or barge involved in freight movements. Tugs and barges involved in the construction, dredging, and industrial services are not included. Each incident is counted only once, regardless of the number of involved vessels or recorded events.
Let’s discuss the table above: In 2016, there were 1,421 towing vessel incidents, of which 87% were classified as low severity incidents. Medium and high severity incidents represented 8% and 5%, respectively. There was a 24% decrease in investigated towing vessel incidents from 2016 to 2017 and, looking at the chart, this continued a trend which had been in a downward pattern since 2011.
We asked MarineNews readers, way back in 2018, “Will the advent of SubM bring more in the way of improvement?” Well, yes, and no. The seven-year running average shows a modest 13% decrease in total incidents, but also a notable increase both medium and high severity events. Moreover, the latest statistical year (2023) came in over the seven-year running average in all categories. Like the Injury statistics shown in Table 3, the towing industry still has much work to do in terms of reducing total incidents. And, the lack of encouraging data in either category (arguably) casts doubt into whether SubM protocols are having the intended impact on safety, as envisioned by the U.S. Coast Guard.
In 2023, the top four categories of towing vessel high severity incidents (initiating events) were collisions (11%), allisions (16%), injuries (48%), or material failures (5%). Back in 2005, the Coast Guard began documenting injury severity with each incident investigation. From 2016 to 2023, the overall percentage of minor and moderate severity injuries remains at about 80%, up from 75% in 2016. This category’s good news stories are that no injury in 2023 reached the critical severity level. Accident types most associated with injuries in the ‘most significant’ category in frequency order include a fall onto a surface; Line handling/caught in lines; crushed between objects, and finally, various other causes.
The most significant ‘take-away’ from this annual report is that the towing industry is in a process of continual improvement – with notable caveats – and in certain areas of performance, it continues to get measurably better. In theory, the advent of the Subchapter M towboat rules should be accelerating that pace. It could be credibly argued that it is not. That said; it is tough to move the needle from a record which has been pretty good, over time. Time will tell. Stay tuned – we’ll be here to catalog it as it unfolds. Count on us.
Read the AWO/USCG report by clicking here