The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has criticised safety systems on board a Manx-registered ship, after an Indian man died in an accident.

A 36-year-old electrician was working on an elevator on the British Mallard in January when he was crushed by a lift.

The vessel was dropping off cargo at an oil refinery near Perth, leading the ATSB to launch an investigation.

A report into the death says the crew didn’t carry out a risk assessment or complete a work permit before starting to work on faulty elevator doors.

Jason Roberts reports (text, below, from attached audio file):

The man died after the elevator started moving while he was working, giving him just four seconds to get out of its way.

(Picture: The SS British Mallard, from merchant-navy.net).

He hadn’t activated the emergency stop buttons, or the inspection button but the ATSB said he wasn’t responsible for doing a risk assessment.

Had safety management systems been better neither he nor two engineers working with him would have considered working on the elevator without risk assessment.

The ATSB said if better safety measures had been in place, the accident might well have been prevented.