CG-2692 Explained: When a Marine Injury Must Be Reported

In a surprising number of crew injury cases, the first document I ask for does not exist. There is no Coast Guard report. The man went to the hospital, missed weeks of work, and the vessel's paperwork reads as if nothing happened.

Sometimes that is correct. Not every injury has to be reported. But often it is not, and the missing report says something about how the vessel was run.

What the rule requires

The reporting rules are in 46 CFR Part 4. Section 4.05-1 lists the marine casualties that must be reported to the Coast Guard. Among them is an injury that requires professional medical treatment beyond first aid and, for someone working aboard a vessel in commercial service, leaves the person unfit to perform routine duties.

The rule calls for immediate notice to the nearest Coast Guard sector or marine safety office once the immediate safety concerns are dealt with. Section 4.05-10 then requires a written report within five days, on Form CG-2692, the Report of Marine Casualty, Commercial Diving Casualty, or OCS-Related Casualty.

More serious events (a death, for example, or significant property damage) can qualify as serious marine incidents, which bring drug and alcohol testing requirements for the people directly involved. Those tests have tight deadlines, so a late report can mean the testing never happened.

Why vessels do not report

The reasons are usually ordinary. A master who did not know the threshold. A company that treats reporting as something the office handles, while the office assumes the vessel did it. A sense that reporting invites scrutiny. And sometimes a decision that the injury was "just a sprain" made before anyone knew whether the man would be back at work next week.

Why it matters in a lawsuit

A missing report affects a case in several practical ways.

Lost evidence. A timely report can prompt a Coast Guard investigation, statements taken while memories are fresh, and photographs of the scene. Without it, those things may never exist.

Credibility. If the company's own procedures required reporting and nobody reported, jurors may ask what else the company decided not to write down.

Pattern. One unreported injury can be an oversight. Several unreported injuries on the same vessel point to how the company handles safety generally.

Legal significance. Whether a reporting failure has legal consequences in the case, beyond what it shows about practice, is a question for counsel and the court. The expert's role is to explain what the rules required and what the vessel did.

When the report was not required

The defense side of this matters too. If the injury did not require treatment beyond first aid, or did not keep the man from his routine duties, the rule may not have been triggered at the time. The records (the medical visit, the work schedule after the injury, the time sheets) usually settle the question. A fair analysis looks at what the people aboard knew when the reporting decision should have been made.

What to ask for

• Any CG-2692 filed for the incident, and the date it was filed
• Communications between the vessel and the office about the injury
• The company's own reporting procedure
• Records of other injuries on the vessel over the prior year or two, and whether each was reported
• Medical and work status records showing when the crew member returned to duty
• Any drug and alcohol testing records

A small rule with large effects

Reporting is not glamorous, and it rarely causes an accident. But it is one of the clearest windows into whether a company follows its own system. In my experience, companies that report honestly tend to run their vessels the same way.

About the author

Captain Mitchell S. Stoller is a Master Mariner Unlimited, former Exxon tanker master, and former Los Angeles Harbor pilot. About Captain Stoller