Manage to stay safe

Fork lift trucks are responsible for more workplace accidents
than any other vehicle.The Fork Lift Truck Association’s
David Ellison suggests what needs to be done

If you are reading this magazine,
chances are that you take safety fairly
seriously. But can you be absolutely
certain that you’re operating according to
best practice? If there’s any room for doubt,
now is the time to revisit your training.

We are now in the run-up to National Fork
Lift Safety Week. Created by the FLTA to
raise awareness of the potential dangers that
the vehicles create, this year’s will take place
from 20th-26th September.

Readers of HSM may remember the
drive from the last two years. The campaign
was created in response to stubbornly high
numbers of workplace transport accidents,
of which fork lift trucks were, and still are,
by far the biggest agents.

So far, the campaign has focussed on the
people on the ground, asking them to
remain aware of the vehicles at all times,
and to take all necessary safety precautions.

To support this, the FLTA released some
shocking figures. People living in the North
of England are more at risk from injury,
and that even taking the disparity in
numbers into account, men are five times
more likely than women to be involved in a
fork lift truck accident.

The good news is that the shock tactics
may be working. Statistics from the Health
and Safety Executive show that during the
period that the campaign has been running,
accident numbers have dropped
significantly: a drop of almost 25% below
the average accident rate for the last eight
years. While this cannot be directly
attributed to Safety Week, it does suggest
that the injury rate can be reduced, with
some conscious effort.

But more does need to be done. There
were almost 1700 recorded UK injuries in
the year 2008/09 according to the HSE’s
provisional statistics. That’s almost five a
day and only includes injuries requiring at
least 3 days off work or worse.

To help address this further the FLTA
believes that managers and supervisors
need to focus on being completely aware of
best practice – and more importantly, put it
into action.

Safe working conditions are everybody’s
remit. People working on the ground need
to know that if they see something unsafe –
covered signs, for instance, or fork lifts
working in unsegregated areas – then it is
crucial they inform their manager, or the
person in charge of the company’s health
and safety.

However, it is the managers and
supervisors who really need to be vigilant,
day in and day out, and to bring your
workplace in line with best operating
practice. Of course to do this you have to
understand what constitutes best practice.

This is where the FLTA can help, with some
of our free resources described later.

It is also worth remembering that beyond
the obvious imperative to protect staff, there
are also fiscal and reputation implications
for companies which do not operate an
effective fork lift truck safety policy.

The HSE has placed an increasing
emphasis on prosecuting companies who
have suffered accidents as a result of poor
safety planning. News stories of companies
paying thousands of pounds in fines are
becoming a regular occurrence – making
their disregard for safety expensive and
high-profile.

Managers who do not wish to lose
money, reputation, morale and co-workers,
then, will want to take Safety Week’s core
message to heart: safe practice is simply a
matter of following guidelines – and
businesses have a lot to lose through
ignorance of them.

Free resources
To that end, the FLTA have produced some
free resources aimed directly at managers.

These include a workplace check list and a
Powerpoint presentation to help them brief
their supervisors and other key staff. These
resources, and others, are available to
download from the Safety Week section of
the FLTA website throughout September:
www.fork-truck.org.uk
The FLTA also runs an annual Safety
Conference taking place this year on the
22nd September.

Attending the Safety Conference is a
simple way to get vital, up-to-date
information on how to be safe in all aspects
of fork lift truck use. As such, if Safety Week
has made you rethink your own workplace
policies, a ticket to the Safety Conference
may be a worthwhile investment.

We can put resources out for people to
use, and make sure that companies have
access to best practice guidelines, but it is
up to employers and employees to put
them to use. Please help us to stop fork lift
trucks killing and seriously injuring people.

National Fork Lift Safety Week runs from
20th-26th September 2010; the Safety
Conference is on 22nd September. For more
information: www.fork-truck.org.uk.