Every year there are hundreds of deaths related to forklifts and thousands of serious injuries associated with this material handling equipment worldwide. Making sure you have the correct procedures and precautions in place is absolutely essential when using this type of machinery in your workplace, otherwise it can lead to massive fines and ultimately could cause the death of an individual.
Why are Forklifts so dangerous?
Forklifts are a very common piece of machinery used in a whole host of industries. What makes these trucks so dangerous is not only the size and weight of the machines, but also the way in which they are built.
Forklifts can weigh 9,000 lbs, or around 4080 kg. They are very heavy. In fact, they are nearly 3 times as heavy as a standard car. This is necessary for them, as their role is to carry heavy loads, and the way forklifts are designed is to be heavy at the rear to compensate for the materials they are lifting. This uneven distribution of weight in the forklift can make them hard to manoeuvre and difficult to handle.
In the United States alone there was around 85 fatalities and nearly 35,000 serious injuries last year (McCue, 2019), and this isn’t uncommon. The latest figures for Australia state that in 2020 so far (Safe Work Australia) 104 workers have suffered fatal accidents at work, with 34 of them within the Transport, Postal and Warehousing industries. In the UK it is reputed that each year there are over 8,000 reported accidents in the workplace involving forklift trucks (Workplace Safety Advice, 2020).
Forklift Safety
With all this in mind there are a number of key things that Operations Managers, Warehouse Managers or Supervisors need to ensure are completed or followed in order to make sure the environment is safe for work, as well as those working on the floor.
- Qualified forklift truck operators who are trained to use the machines they work on.
- Daily inspections of the warehouse and the forklift trucks and materials handling equipment. This could be completed by the managers or other staff.
- Safety wear is provided and worn when anyone is working.
- Know the limits of the trucks that are being used to prevent misuse by lifting loads that are too heavy.
- Leaving the keys in the machine is bad practice and could lead to others taking advantage of the situation and driving a machine when they are not qualified to do so.
With our range of forklift telematics systems installed on your forklifts, we can provide you with information on your trucks, their operators and their working environment in real time, enhancing your knowledge of your forklift fleet. They also include features such as pre-shift checks and impact reporting to improve the safety of your machines and workplace.
For more information about our range of products please take a look at their pages on our website; Forklift iQ360 and Fleet iQ360. If you have any further questions, please contact us here.