Mobile Phones and Reversing Trailers: The Fatal Combination on Seatruck Progress's Ramp

A Call, and a Back Turned to the Ramp

On 15 May 2019, the third officer aboard the ro-ro freight ferry Seatruck Progress was on the stern ramp during vehicle loading at Gladstone Dock, Liverpool. He was talking on his mobile phone, facing away from the direction of vehicle movement. A semi-trailer was reversing on the ramp behind him. He was struck and sustained fatal injuries.

No Barrier Between Crew and Cargo Traffic

MAIB's investigation found there was no physical segregation of pedestrian routes from vehicle movements on the stern ramp, and no formal system to prevent crew from entering the active vehicle loading zone at all. Mobile phone use during cargo operations was neither prohibited nor managed. The risk assessment for ramp operations had not adequately addressed the fundamental conflict of pedestrians and reversing HGVs sharing the same surface.

The Structural Failure Behind the Phone

The mobile phone call removed the third officer's own situational awareness — a total, cognitive absence from his immediate environment at the exact moment it mattered. But MAIB's investigation points past the phone to the structural gap underneath: even a fully attentive crew member should not have had to share a ramp surface with a reversing HGV with no segregation, no exclusion zone, and no spotter or warning system in place.

Recommended Actions

1. Implement physical segregation of pedestrian routes from vehicle movements on all ro-ro ramps (Rec 2020/120).
2. Establish exclusion zones during active vehicle loading and unloading operations on stern and bow ramps (Rec 2020/121).
3. Implement a prohibition on mobile phone use by crew members in active cargo operation areas (Rec 2020/122).
4. Review risk assessments for ramp operations to address the pedestrian-vehicle conflict, with priority given to engineering solutions (Rec 2020/123).

Human Element Analysis