Driving forklift safety forward

Statistics suggest poor awareness of the risks associated with fork lift trucks may be putting nearby colleagues in harm's way. David Ellison of the Fork Lift Truck Association explains why training is the focus of this year's Fork Lift Truck Safety Week.

Over 1.2 million workers in the UK could be at risk of a serious or even fatal accident because they have not been adequately trained to work near fork lift trucks.

Those are the findings we at the Fork Lift Truck Association have revealed this month, as part of our National Fork Lift Safety Week campaign.

It's something that needs to be taken seriously. Every year, five to ten Britons are killed by fork lift trucks, and around four hundred are hospitalised with major injuries including amputations and crushing. Over a thousand more suffer accidents requiring at least three days' recovery time.

To put that in context, fork lift trucks remain consistently the most dangerous kind of workplace transport - typically accounting for more hospitalisations than cars and HGVs combined.

Despite three years' sustained improvement in the fork lift truck accident record, there are still far too many accidents - most avoidable, and many down to basic human error. Why? Comparing figures from the Office for National Statistics and Skills for Logistics, the FLTA discovered that one in twelve UK employees regularly works near fork lift trucks... but fewer than half of them have received the minimum recommended training for their job. In many cases this is likely to mean low fork lift truck awareness.

To complicate matters, workers at risk include not just - or even predominantly - fork lift truck operators. Around two thirds of accident victims are actually colleagues on foot; in the wrong place at the wrong time, without an awareness of the unique dangers fork lift trucks present, and how to avoid them.

This means training requirements extend to van and HGV drivers, warehouse workers, administrative staff and other colleagues in associated roles - indeed, anyone who gets near to a moving lift truck during their day-to-day work.

Of course, managers can't protect employees unless they've also had the right tuition to spot unsafe working practices and eliminate risks - yet these key influencers are precisely those who often feel too busy to undertake frontline training.

While 55% of logistics workers lack the basic skills for their job, it's no wonder these life-shattering accidents happen - literally every day. It's a situation which urgently needs to change.

To help remedy the situation, the National Fork Lift Safety Week campaign for 2011 will focus upon training as its theme.

Free training resources This autumn, visitors to the FLTA website www.fork-truck.org.uk will be invited to download a free safety poster, complete a checklist to evaluate their own training arrangements, and view a presentation on the importance of ensuring supervisors are themselves properly trained.

Meanwhile, our members will circulate emails and flyers from the association, explaining the legal, operational and business case to train anyone working near fork lift trucks. If you receive one of these, please take a moment to read it, and pass it on to relevant colleagues.

As every health and safety professional understands, the law is perfectly clear: all employees must have the right training to carry out their work safely. But not everyone understands how widely, and urgently, this rule applies when it comes to fork lift trucks.

It is our aim to reach as many safety managers as possible, especially those on sites where lift trucks operate, and clarify the situation.

We believe providing proper, accredited training, for all relevant staff, is the single most significant action any employer can take to safeguard employees on such sites and further reduce the number of avoidable accidents harming British workers each year.

National Fork Lift Safety Week 2011 runs from 19th - 25th September. For more information, or to download free safety resources, visit the FLTA online at www.forktruck.org.uk.