Midland Pallet Trucks has called for businesses to prioritise employee safety after outrageous statistics about the lack of forklift safety in the UK were recently released.
The figures, which were collected by The Regulatory Body for Workplace Transport Training, lay bare the sorry state of forklift safety. An incredible 65 per cent of forklift workers didn’t know how to conduct the vital driving and braking pre-use check required to ensure that their vehicle is safe to use.
A further 49 per cent of forklift drivers did not know how to check that the operator’s seat was safe, and 48 per cent were unaware of how to suitably check the forklift’s mast.
Phil Chesworth, Midland Pallet Trucks managing director, said: “These figures about how unaware some forklift drivers were about how to check their vehicles are safe to use are shocking.
“It’s down to the companies who employ these people to ensure that such procedure is second nature; we’ve had some fatal accidents with forklifts recently and we certainly don’t want to see any more.”
The figures come after a recent tragic accident caused a 65-year-old man, described as being only ‘days away from retirement,’ to be killed in a forklift-related incident at Hull-based Swift Caravans.
Earlier in the year a £450,000 was levelled at Derbyshire-based Vinyl Compound Ltd for the heart-rending death of 19-year old forklift driver Ben Pallier-Singleton after he was crushed to death in 2015. Vacu-Lug Tyres Ltd in Grantham was also fined £300,000 this year after Stephen Woollas was tragically killed in a forklift accident.
Phil added: “There’s nothing more important than safety, and I’d advise all firms who use forklifts to bear these tragic incidents in mind and ensure that their drivers know how to operate their vehicles safely so we aren’t faced with any more horrific accidents.”
