October 27, 2009
CED Assists in the Development of Marine Ladder Safety Standards
OSHA and its Involvement in Forensics
Meet the Expert: William H. Daley, III, P.E.
CED Assists in the Development of Marine Ladder Safety Standards
 Each year there are a number of people in the United States who are injured or killed by the propeller and/or hull of recreational marine vessels. Many of the injuries occurred when a person came in contact with a spinning propeller as they were attempting to climb the vessel’s rear ladder. While the US Coast Guard and the American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) cannot control the actions of the captain or passengers, they can help prevent accidents by developing boating safety standards.
Recently, the ABYC began studying how ladder design affected the safety of a vessel. Because the ABYC needed an engineering firm that had expertise, education, and experience in both the maritime industry and accident analysis, CED Investigative Technologies Inc. was retained to perform the study. CED's long history in the maritime industry was crucial to the ABYC’s ladder study. CED was originally founded by a group of United States Naval Academy graduates and professors. With our heritage and education deeply rooted in the fields of Naval Architecture, Ocean Engineering, and Human Factors, it was a natural fit for CED to determine if a better ladder design could prevent accidents.
As research is a critical phase of forensic engineering, CED looked for accident trends in the US Coast Guard’s Boating Accident Reporting Database (BARD). In searching the BARD database, it was clear that the majority of accidents during rear boarding involved the lower limbs. Based upon this and other studies, CED hypothesized that a short ladder, as the standard currently called for, left passengers with their limbs exposed during boarding. If the propeller was spinning or accidently engaged during boarding, a person could lose stability and allow their limbs to be pulled into the propeller.
CED then travelled with the ABYC to a testing facility in Merritt Island, Florida where human factors was studied extensively with both short and longer ladders. The results of the study were astounding. Only a slight increase in the length of the ladder vastly increased the stability and limb control of the boarder. During simulation of an engine start, a longer ladder decreased the susceptibility of the limbs being pulled into the propeller and allowed a boarder to continue up the ladder while maintaining control of their lower limbs. For a full report from the ABYC – Click Here
CED is not only a forensic engineering company but also an engineering company that can use forensics to study and enhance accident prevention, standard adherence and many other areas.
OSHA and its Involvement in Forensics
 CED Investigative Technologies Inc. has been investigating accidents and providing forensic engineering services for over 24 years but an area where potential clients contact CED and still seem uncertain is when an accident involves an Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) violation. OSHA was created in 1970 to prevent work-related accidents, illness and death by creation of regulations and subsequent enforcement. Workplaces including farms, factories, construction sites and marine terminals need to comply with OSHA regulations to make the environment safe for workers. When accidents involving death or injuries to more than one person happen, OSHA field officers are required to investigate. The OSHA investigator will determine if the facility and employer were in compliance with appropriate OSHA regulations, and may issue citations if problems are found. In some cases the regulations violated will relate directly to the cause of the accident. However, citations may also be issued for violation of regulations unrelated to the accident.
When an accident occurs and OSHA has been involved, the plaintiff’s counsel, defense counsel or insurance company will usually have two main areas of concern: (1) the potential failure of a device or lack of device such as a safety harness, guard or interlock switch and (2) whether the OSHA violations were related to the cause of the accident. Many parties determine that two separate experts are needed: one to investigate the potential failure of the device and a separate expert on OSHA regulations, often a safety professional. This is not always necessary and at CED, a majority of our experts can handle both aspects of the case. The reason is that OSHA regulations are based upon consensus standards and the standards are based upon engineering principles. CED engineers are qualified to testify about these standards making them creditable and powerful witnesses should litigation be required. When it comes to OSHA regulations and interpretations related to worker safety, many CED engineers either have military backgrounds (the original OSHA safety standards were adopted from military safety practices) or they have held management roles in industry or construction with responsibility for safety.
It is powerful to have one expert cover both areas because accidents typically occur for multiple reasons including the absence or failure of devices, and not having or not following safe practices. It is a benefit to the client, and potentially in the long run to a jury, to have one expert present all the factors that contributed to the cause of the accident, and one set of coherent opinions. CED has testified in both state and federal courts concerning cases when OSHA issued citations.
Meet the Expert: William H. Daley, III, P.E.
 Mr. William H. Daley, III, is a senior mechanical engineer with CED, he holds over 11 years of a distinguished background in such areas as safety operations, operation of mechanical devices and naval operations as a retired U.S. Navy commander. Mr. Daley holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy and a Master of Science degree from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Prior to joining CED, Mr. Daley was the Director of Manufacturing for a custom builder of precision cleaning and plastic bonding machinery. During his 20 years of experience in the Navy, he was responsible for the repair and operation of shipboard weapons systems, steam propulsion plants, electrical plants and their supporting auxiliary equipment. Additionally, he was a master instructor and Associate Chairman in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Since joining CED in 1996, Mr. Daley has handled over 460 cases involving machinery accidents, vehicle accident reconstructions, slip and falls, marine investigations and many others. Mr. Daley's experience and education has lead him to be highly regarded as an expert in the areas of mechanical systems, marine systems such as cruise line operations, machinery operation and guarding and worker safety.
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