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Steering clear
Preventing lift truck accidents
Print pageBen Singleton
There are three good reasons to focus on lift truck or forklift safety.
First, lift trucks are often fast-moving and need to be driven carefully. Tens of thousands of workers are injured in lift truck accidents each year. Small lift truck accidents not only cause bumps and bruises, they also can result in broken bones.
Second, OSHA says companies must pay attention to lift truck safety. Regulations that took effect in March, 1999 require employers to train and certify every lift truck operator and recertify them every three years.
Third, accidents can cost lives. Unfortunately, they also cost a lot of money, and disrupt operations. Workers are a company's largest investment and they deserve protection from injury. Safety is important and makes good business sense.
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Before the truck moves
The safe car or truck driver always inspects the vehicle before startup, to ensure it's in good operating condition. Lift truck operators must do the same. Lift truck operators should use a daily checklist, which includes items such as tire condition, battery charge level and engine fluid levels. They must also check key operating components and a walk around the vehicle before startup.
Every lift truck has a data plate. It tells the operator the vehicle's weight and lift capacity, the grades it can safely ascend and descend, as well as other important safety information. The operator should be familiar with this data before starting the truck.
Lifting safely
It's important for operators to know the width and height of the vehicle. A typical lift truck has several height measurements.
Not knowing the truck's height may result in contact with a conveyors, lights, overhead wires or sprinklers. Similarly, a truck only has to be an inch wider than what the driver thinks it is can cause a collision and bring pallets down on workers.
It's critical that the vehicle's stated lifting capacity not be exceeded. However, it is just as important to make sure the load is stable and secure before lifting. For example, the operator should determine if goods are secured to the pallet properly to avoid shifting, as well as whether the load is balanced properly or weighed to one side. Attention to these details takes only seconds, but it can save lives.
Training programs help operators to understand center of gravity principles. Each lift truck has a stability triangle. As long as the vehicle's center of gravity,loaded or unloaded,remains within that triangle, rollovers can be avoided. Operators must understand clearly how the center of gravity shifts when a load is put on the forks, when the forks are raised, and when the vehicle starts moving.
One of the most common safety problems involves using a lift truck to lift people without them wearing restraining gear. Allowing workers to stand on bare forks while they are lifted is dangerous. This must not be done.
Safety while moving
In a busy, crowded warehouse or distribution center, there must be traffic rules for the moving vehicles, just as there are for cars on the road. The problem is many operators don't know the rules, or forget to observe them. When trucks are moving, workers should remember:
Management's role is key
While these suggestions are good, operators by themselves can't make a lift truck safety program work. Experience shows management must buy into the campaign to prevent accidents successfully. Management commitment must be visible, as well as personal. Management must be prepared to make the necessary investment to reduce accidents and maintenance costs.
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