Forklift Safety – When Pedestrians and Vehicles Mix

In large warehousing facilities, or even in industrial buildings where materials are often moved from one area to another, forklifts are a fairly common sight.  Referred to by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as powered industrial trucks, forklifts comes in many different shapes and sizes, from small runabouts to heavy-duty units typically employed in lumber yards and mining sites.  Regardless of their size, however, forklifts present one of the more common hazards to worker safety.  This is due not only to the risk of injury that is associated with accidental collisions, but also the complacency which can often set in amongst workers who are constantly exposed to an environment where motorized vehicles are the norm.

Risk managers should be cognizant of the fact that awareness is often one of the best tools for preventing forklift-related injury.  Both operators and workers sharing space with forklifts need to be educated as to the practices and habits that can help save lives and reduce incidents on the job.  Right of way should be clearly ceded to those on foot at all times, and for those behind the controls of a forklift this means understanding the traffic along a particular route and staying alert as to the possibility of pedestrians in the path of the vehicle.  Operators should be comfortable using their horns to alert others as to their presence, and rotating lights or other bright identifiers can help to make forklifts more visible to other personnel.  This in addition to the standard backup alarm that signals to everyone in the vicinity that the forklift is traveling in a direction where visibility is less than ideal.

For their part, workers who find themselves often in the presence of forklifts must be educated as to their operation and how to protect themselves from a vehicle-related injury.  Unlike other motorized carts or trucks, forklifts are not designed to come to a rapid stop in an emergency, as the stability of cargo has to be taken into account.  This means that workers need to give forklifts as wide a berth as possible, and make sure that operators have seen them before traversing their paths.  These vehicles also swing around in a wide radius while turning, which can make the rear of a forklift as dangerous as the front.  Finally, ducking under a load which has been raised into the air is never a safe decision to make.  Always take the long way around – no shortcut is worth risking tragic consequences.

Risk managers themselves can identify high traffic areas where forklifts and other personnel often share the same space, and train workers to keep these areas free from clutter or other obstructions.  They can also help to keep sight lines clear along these corridors, ensuring that both operators and other workers alike can spot each other in time to prevent a problem.  The use of convex mirrors can help to improve visibility at intersections as well.  Whenever possible, separating pedestrians from forklift travel routes by means of a guardrail or walkway should be considered.