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Forklift Trucks: Potential Danger In The Workplace

Date of article:  21/06/2007

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The HSE is warning businesses that use forklift trucks the necessary steps to safeguard against the dangers posed by these vehicles.

The HSE recorded 2,000 incidents, including seven deaths, with forklift trucks last year.

The warning comes after Silvery Tweed Cereals Ltd was fined £20,000 for not ensuring that the load was adequately secure; nor did they make a suitable risk assessment. They also did not ensure appropriate forklift truck driving training for their operators.

The result of this was that one of their employees sustained injuries which has left him permanently paralysed after a downgrade bin wich he was emptying fell from the forks and pinned him down to the ground.

HSE Inspector Martin Baillie said:

"Forklift truck drivers are a potential danger to their operators and to other people in the vicinity if not operated with great care. Risks include being struck by a moving truck, crushed by an overturning vehicle, becoming trapped between a truck and an object or, as in this case being crushed by a falling load."

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