Warehouse Safety Fork Lift Trucks

Warehouse Safety Fork Lift Trucks cause injuries and fatalities

In this case a worker was crushed to death by an overturning fork lift truck. The accident happened as an employee was driving an unladen fork lift truck down a sloping access. He made a sudden and sharp turn causing the truck to overturn. As it did, the employee was thrown from the truck with the roll cage landing on his head, trapping him underneath it. A colleague rushed to another fork lift to raise it and free the injured man. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident due to multiple head injuries.

The ensuing investigation showed that the worker had only been with the company two weeks. He had received no formal fork lift truck training, but was given a 20 minute in-house training. It was found that this fell well short of the required HSE standards. He had received inadequate training on the use of a seat belt nor the hazards of turning sharply on sloping ground.
A HSE site inspection a few years prior to the incident highlighted that there were unauthorised and untrained users operating the fork lift trucks. He was made aware of this by the HSE and told to ensure that only trained competent people should drive the fork lifts. Despite this, on the day of the accident, it was found that there were a number of people required to drive the trucks as part of their jobs, but had been given no external training.

The company received combined fines of £24,500 after pleading guilty to the charges.