To be able to operate any kind of lift truck, specific OSHA requirements have to be met. Several companies provide basic awareness training to other individuals like visitors and office staff or sales people and other non-operators who might venture into the yard or warehouse. Even though OSHA doesn't particularly address lift truck pedestrian training, the OSHA General Duty Clause dictates that employers need to take measures in order to protect employees from certain dangers, like pedestrians exposed to lift trucks in motion.
Pedestrian safety is a huge problem which has to be dealt with and not disregarded. Based on the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or NIOSH; roughly 20% of all forklift accidents comprise a pedestrian being struck by a forklift. This statistic means roughly 19,000 individuals on a yearly basis.
In order to keep everyone safe, there are some basic steps which should be taken into account. This is regardless to how briefly or frequently individuals are around industrial trucks during their work day. Among the main factors is that lift truck pedestrian mishaps often happen in cases where the pedestrian is ignorant of safety measures. Problems also occur more often when the pedestrian has become used to frequent interaction with forklifts and ends up complacent.
So as to avoid putting yourself at potential risk of being struck by a lift truck, there are some common situations to look out for. Amongst the most common problems is when pedestrians did not see the lift truck. A lot operations have various degrees of blind corners or intersections that pedestrians must know. At times pedestrians do not hear the forklift. Be very careful of the different kinds of power sources. Like for instance, electric trucks may be a lot quieter than internal combustion engines which are really loud.
The other main issues are when pedestrians come in too close proximity of the equipment. Common sense tells us that in order for a pedestrian to be injured by a lift truck, the pedestrian needs to be in close enough proximity to be struck. For a forklift which is running, a four foot safety zone is suggested in order to make a safe perimeter for everyone. This really helps to deal with risks such as the model driving accidentally over a pedestrian's foot.
Following and implementing strict safety protocol helps to make sure that the workplace safety remains paramount and stays top notch.