Analysis of Shipyard Accidents in Turkey

Aims: Shipbuilding industry is one of the oldest and the heaviest production industries all over the world. There are several unsafe production processes which result accidents. Occupational accidents cause to death or injuries for workers, and financial loss for employers. For this reason, this study has been done for analyzing occupational accidents at Tuzla Shipyard Region-Istanbul-Turkey.
Methodology and Duration of Study: Research data has been obtained between 2011-2013 statistics of occupational accidents with “Retrospective Cohort’ method in “Shipyard S” in Tuzla, Istanbul. Within this study, occupational accidents that occurred in the shipyard between those years are investigated.
Results: According to study results, victims’ education level, ages, injured parts of the body, type and severity of injuries, reasons, effects and ratio of accidents due to seasons and months have been obtained. During the study, 13 major accidents, and 87 minor accidents happened. Primary school graduates or illiterate workers were exposed 39% of occupational accidents. Young workers under the age of 30 were exposed 59% of accidents. Eye (23%), hands (22%) and the finger (17%) injuries the most common injuries occurred in shipyard.
Conclusion: Both employees and employers should fulfill their responsibilities for occupational health and safety. All major and minor accidents in shipyards should be recorded, their causes should be investigated, and all necessary measures should be taken. Both shipyard enterprises in shipyard regions should perform within the framework of a management system for health and safety, and ‘shipyard passport’ application should be brought on the system in shipyard region. In this study, for analyzing shipyard accidents efficiently, Shipyard Accidents Analysis and Management System (SAAMS) modulus was prepared and various results were obtained.