First surface ship safety seminar held

The Naval Safety Center and the Board of Inspection and Survey (InSurv) conducted a cooperative and first-ever surface ship safety seminar in August. Thirty-one commands participated, represented by everyone from department heads to division officers.

The seminar addressed recurring fleet discrepancies identified during both afloat safety surveys and InSurv inspections. Driven by the Naval Safety Center and InSurv, the seminar addressed safety and other topics, including a human system integration (HSI) briefing by a Naval Sea Systems Command representative from Whitney, Bradley and Brown, Inc.

The Naval Safety Center and InSurv do not compare their individual inspection and survey results; however, the two commands regularly exchange general information about what each checks during its respective visit. The Safety Center primarily observes safety and training requirements and, therefore, offers commands visited more of a static appraisal. InSurv, on the other hand, performs hot and cold equipment safety checks and observes actual operating procedures. Nonetheless, each of the two (the Safety Center and InSurv), independently and frequently identifies similar discrepancies--a fact highlighted during the seminar.

Fleet units should understand a Safety Center survey is a "free look" and usually is scheduled from a year to a few months before InSurv. It might seem unreasonable for InSurv to identify the same discrepancies found during a Safety Center survey.

However, Safety Center survey results are given only to the commanding officer, who then will direct what action he deems appropriate to resolve the problem. InSurv handles results differently.

Briefs presented during the safety seminar are available on the Naval Safety Center's website at http://www. safetycenter.navy.mil, under the Afloat Directorate. Each Power-Point brief outlines common Safety Center and InSurv discrepancies found during their independent ship visits. Pay particular attention to each slide's note section, since it references data about each discrepancy. Furthermore, the Safety Center will be visiting fleet concentration areas to brief this presentation.

The Safety Center has sent a message to commands who participated in the seminar, asking for feedback: Was the information useful? Did we miss anything? How can we improve this seminar? E-mail us and let us know what you think.

The Naval Safety Center point of contact is Cdr. Richard Martel at (757) 444-3520, Ext. 7133 DSN 564); or e-mail richard.martel@navy.mil. Send feedback via e-mail to safe-afloat@navy.mil.

By ETC(SW) Henry DuPlantier,

Naval Safety Center

COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Navy Safety Center
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group