7 Creative Ways to Improve Pedestrian and Forklift Safety
Ensuring pedestrian and forklift safety in industrial environments is crucial, and implementing creative strategies can significantly reduce accidents and improve overall safety.
- By Vernon O'Donnell
- Aug 05, 2024
Vehicle safety is a universal concern in industrial industries. Vehicles like forklifts in retail, supply chain, food and beverage, grocery, and other sectors need to be a constant focal point for safety leaders. Ensuring both pedestrian and forklift safety is a critical responsibility and can be challenging.
The numbers are staggering. One in ten forklifts in the workplace are involved in incidents. And according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), nearly 20 percent of forklift accidents involve a pedestrian. That means, of the 96,000 forklift injuries in North America every year, roughly 19,000 pedestrians are injured.
While the human toll of forklift safety is the most important element, it’s also worth going over the tremendous financial cost these incidents inflict on companies. The National Safety Council calculates that the average cost of a worker’s compensation claim for a forklift related injury is over $38,000 and the average total cost per injury exceeds $150,000.
There are several effective strategies for improving pedestrian and forklift safety. Here are seven creative ways to enhance safety in the workplace:
Add Stop Signs
When a forklift or vehicle fails to stop at critical points, the risk of collision increases significantly. These incidents can involve crashing into other vehicles, equipment or pedestrians. Installing physical or digital stop signs at critical points such as intersections, doors and aisle ends can significantly reduce the risk of collisions. This sounds simple — and it is — but adding these signs and signals to the workplace can significantly decrease forklift and pedestrian safety incidents. Digital stop signs are even more effective than traditional signs.
Impose Speed Limits
Did you know that the average forklift weighs more than 4 tons? That doesn’t include the cargo being carried by the lift. It is not a wise idea to allow that kind of volume to move irresponsibly through a work area. It’s clear that the faster the speed, the greater the risk of injury to the operator and others in the vicinity. This is why it is important that all operators are subject to reasonable and safe speed limits. These limits should not only be taught in training but also posted wherever the forklift travels. Newer technology also helps to control the speed of a forklift by radar.