Op-Ed: Preventing falls overboard—Industry’s call to lead

Michael Breslin

By Mike Breslin, Senior Director – Safety & Sustainability, AWO

America’s tugboat, towboat, and barge industry is the safest mode of bulk freight transportation in the United States. We have significantly less injuries and fatalities when compared to truck and rail, and our industry has driven fatality rates down from an average near 15 annually to less than six per year from 2010 to 2023. But while our safety record is strong, our work is not done and there has yet to be a year with zero fatalities.

As we pursue continuous improvement, it is imperative that we look at the leading cause of work-related crew deaths: falls overboard. To do so, the American Waterways Operators (AWO) convened its Falls Overboard Prevention Subcommittee in 2022 and tasked the Subcommittee with finding ways to stop or greatly reduce the risk of fatality due to a Fall Overboard (FOB) by identifying mitigations and risk techniques that may apply to our dynamic industry operations.

The Problem: Falls Overboard Are Still Our #1 Killer

The Subcommittee began work by investigating 118 falls overboard events recorded between 2012 and 2024. Using an in-depth survey, details of each event were analyzed, looking at factors including time of day, waterway, crew position, experience, environmental conditions, and many other factors. The resulting data informed the mitigation techniques presented in AWO’s recently released Falls Overboard Prevention Report.

Data in the report from 118 incidents show that 68% occurred on barges, and 84% were caused by slips, trips, or loss of balance. These events involved both seasoned mariners and those just starting their careers, highlighting that experience alone does not mitigate risk.

The most common causal factors were related to the working environment, including operations at night, slippery or cluttered decks, unguarded edges, odd vessel designs, unfamiliar equipment, and work done on equipment not owned or controlled by servicing crew.

Beyond these statistics are the human and operational costs for crew who experienced the loss of a colleague. A single fall overboard reverberates through families, crews, and companies, altering lives and shaking confidence. Every loss is a painful reminder that we can and must do more to protect the people who power our waterways.

The Solution: Industry-Wide Action and Preventive Measures

The Falls Overboard Prevention Report is a data-driven, industry-informed resource designed to address this challenge head-on. It outlines practical, proven solutions across multiple layers of protection, including introducing mitigations that eliminate hazards or substituting work near a hazard with procedures that do not place workers in harm’s way; using engineering and design mitigations to guard or block access to hazards; implementing administrative controls and training so crews can identify and avoid hazards; and using personal protective equipment like fall restraint devices to deny access to hazards.

The controls in the report go beyond regulatory requirements, complementing safety rules with purpose-designed procedures to address specific risks using layered defenses and proactive planning. The Report can help any towing company implement a comprehensive FOB prevention plan that is tailored to its own operation.

Standdown Day: A Call to Pause, Reflect, and Act

To amplify the availability of the FOB Report, the tugboat, towboat and barge industry will come together on August 28 for the Falls Overboard Safety Standdown Day, a coordinated, nationwide pause to focus on preventing falls overboard. Crews can use the report and materials available on AWO’s website to facilitate discussions about systems and processes to inform the creation of tailored best practices that will prevent future fatalities.

A greater impact can be achieved using the hashtags #StopFallsOverboard and #AWOSafety on August 28. With these hashtags, the industry can multiply individual efforts and share ideas while also highlighting our commitment to eliminating the risk of falls for our mariners, their families, and the industry. By taking just 15 minutes on one day to focus on this critical issue to strengthen crew knowledge, we can instill safe habits and drive mindfulness to promote awareness year-round.

A Shared Vision for Zero Falls

Achieving zero falls overboard requires every leader to take accountability and speak with mariners often about prevention. It requires companies to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. And it requires each of us, whether in the wheelhouse, on deck, or in the boardroom, to make falls overboard prevention a priority every day. One fall overboard is one too many. Let’s ensure that our measure of success remains simple and absolute: every crew member comes home safe –  every day, every voyage.

For more information or to become involved in our work to mitigate the risk of falls overboard, please contact safety@americanwaterways.com.