A 36-year-old man died of his injuries after being hit by a forklift in Delta, BC on January 20, 2015.
“Emergency responders were not able to help the man, who reportedly died at the scene,” reads this recent story from the Delta Optimist News: “Man killed in Delta industrial accident.”
My heart goes out to the loved ones who lost this young man. It’s also another example of trauma for first responders to process, as I wrote about in my recent post Protecting mental health of front line workers.
A contact at WorkSafeBC, who works to prevent this very type of accident, suggested I write about this. He and his colleagues – safety professionals – ask themselves if there is anything else they can write to stop people from dying in this way.
Much is already written – for example, this video series: Fields of Vision: Pedestrian Safety Around Forklifts.
And this WorkSafeBC accident investigation slideshow: Forklift crushes worker – and WorkSafeBC Hazard Alerts by equipment: Forklifts.
As you can see, the risk affects workers in many different industries, from agriculture (Rack of seedlings topples off forklift, crushes farmer) to manufacturing (Worker crushed under load when forklift tips).
It just shows that no matter how much we write about important topics, we have to keep talking about them. As long as injuries keep happening, we have to keep reminding people.
It is so important to work safely with forklifts. I think that whenever you are using bulky or heavy machinery that you have to be extra careful to not only not hurt yourself but others as well. Any tool is a great tool if you use it wisely.