A seaman never hopes to be in a position where he needs to use life rafts, life jackets, firefighting equipment, and myriad other life saving devices that a vessel must have. However, failure to have properly functioning life saving equipment can very often mean the difference between life and death for a seaman.

The Coast Guard last month terminated the voyages of three commercial fishing vessels off Alaska. The Coast Guard conducted an inspection of the vessels and found that one of them had expired life rafts, while other two did not have lifesaving devices at all. The vessels were escorted back by a Coast Guard cutter, and they must clear the violations before they begin a journey again.

In the middle of a fire that requires you to abandon a ship is not the time for you to find out that you don’t have enough number of life jackets or survival suits for each crewmember, or that one of the crewmembers cannot fit into his suit. These are potentially fatal deficiencies, and while the Coast Guard does what it can by conducting inspections and penalizing commercial fishing vessel owners and operators for violations, the fact is that several lives are lost every year due to such failures.

Vessel owners have a duty to provide life saving equipment to seamen.

• Equipment must be properly designed.
• There must be enough numbers of lifesaving devices on the vessel for each crewmember.
• Lifesaving gear like survival suits, must fit each crewmember.
• Crewmembers must be trained to use these life saving devices quickly and safely in an emergency.
• Lifesaving equipment must be inspected periodically or at the start of every season to make sure they function properly.

Failure to perform any of these activities can place the employer/ vessel owner at liability in a Jones Act negligence or unseaworthiness claim.

Maritime lawyer Brian Beckcom is a Board Certified trial lawyer, whose primary focus is the representation of injured Jones Act seamen, tankermen, galleyhands, deckhands, drillers, oilrig workers, offshore workers and other maritime workers in accidents in Texas, around the country and in international waters.