With a plethora of different vehicles on the roads nowadays, the never-ending list of transportation accidents is only increasing; and at a rapid rate too! You wouldn’t drive a car or a motorbike without undergoing an official, thorough training programme, nor would you drive a forklift at work under the same circumstances. It may be easy to assume that a forklift is an easy-to-drive vehicle that any rookie can jump in and excel at driving, but that most certainly is not the case. Forklifts, in fact, require extensive training due to the severity and high volume of injuries, (and even deaths) caused by merely driving them in work.
Forklift Misconceptions
Although it may appear like forklifts are a slow-moving vehicle, (which they are, they can only go as fast as 8mph) it doesn’t always take speed to cause a catastrophe. It is lack of training that can result in severe accidents, even if you are driving slowly. It is due to the fact that a high quantity of workers believe they can drive a forklift unqualified that results in a large percentage of accidents. What these people don’t usually know is that forklifts are the most dangerous transport within the workplace. Although this may come as a surprise, heavy goods vehicles and large goods vehicles injure people significantly less, henceforth the unqualified drivers.
UK Accidents
One forklift accident is too many, let alone countless forklift accidents occurring with high regularity. In the United Kingdom alone, the quantity of forklift accidents is drastically high. 25% of all workplace transportation injuries stem from forklifts, proving that if every forklift driver was officially qualified, a whole quarter of all transport accidents could be abolished. On top of that, 1300 UK employees are hospitalised annually, causing pain to both the victims and their families. Of the 1300 unfortunate victims, all of their injuries fall into these 4 categories: Complex fractures; dislocations; degloving’s; amputations. All of these injuries are very distressing indeed, (you’d be brave to google “degloving”) and many people, unfortunately, never recover from accidents of this ilk. To make things even worse, one person in the UK is killed by a forklift every 6 weeks.
Worldwide Accidents
Moreover, it is not just the United Kingdom that holds a massive issue with the safety of forklift driving. It is reported forklifts are the direct cause of 85 people tragically losing their own life every single year. When you bear in mind the courses available to people to help them stay safe in a forklift, this statistic is truly shocking. It doesn’t end there. Worldwide, there are up to 35,000 serious injuries caused to innocent people merely by driving a forklift. This is accompanied by 61,800 non-serious forklifting injuries annually. These injuries could easily turn fatal, which could result in over 100,000 fatalities each year! However, this figure could alternatively be massively reduced if every forklift driver underwent official training and adhered to the safety regulations.
Why Do Forklift Accidents Occur So Frequently?
If you bear in mind the sheer weight of a car and how often tragedies happen from car crashes, imagine the impact if these cars weighed twice as heavy. Well, the vast majority of forklifts usually weigh between 7000 and 8000 pounds. This colossal number is twice as high as most cars, (3.5 tonnes) which highlights how easily forklifting tragedies can occur if the slightest thing goes wrong. Furthermore, 42% of all forklifting fatalities are due to the forklift toppling over. If a human being was in a car that toppled over, they would be at risk. But if a human is in a forklift that topples over, (with a forklift weighing twice as much and with the driver being exposed to the open) it really isn’t actually that surprising how many people are now at a major disadvantage from forklifting.
It’s Up To You
If the above abundance of fatalities doesn’t make you realise the importance of forklift training, then it is perhaps advisable to never drive a forklift in your life. The number of accidents needs to be drastically reduced. The OSHA, (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) revealed that if companies implemented official training courses and made it obligatory to undergo them, then up to 70% of all forklifting accidents could easily be prevented. Maybe you’d like to save a bit of money and drive a forklift without driving, but you’d much rather save your life, (or someone else’s) than a few pounds! It is for that reason that if you want to drive a forklift in the workplace, then undergoing official forklift training is the only option you have. We wish you safe and happy forklifting for you and those around you.
