Forklift Accidents: Usually Serious And Oftentimes Deadly

When I was in high school, I was hired as a forklift driver at a textile plant. I was given no training whatsoever, had never operated a forklift and within hours was lifting huge pallets of heavy materials high into the air for placement on warehouse shelving. Fortunately, I did not injury anyone or kill myself, but I easily could have. Indeed, that same summer a high school friend of mine lost his life when he accidently drove a forklift backwards off of a loading ramp, killing himself in the process.
Just a month or two ago, here in Atlanta, I read about a news story where one employee at a car dealership was training another employee on how to drive a forklift when the co-worker overran the employee killing him. Here at Finch McCranie, we have represented individuals who were involved in industrial accidents where they were struck by forklifts inside of manufacturing facilities. These cases typically result in very serious personal injuries involving amputations, paralysis or death. Incredibility, my experience in high school is repeated over and over again as oftentimes the operator of these forklifts has been provided little or no training. Today, this is a violation of OSHA regulations. It was not in the 70’s and 80’s.
Forklifts are very heavy and very dangerous industrial vehicles involved every year in a large number of deaths and serious injuries in the workplace. Many of the injuries and fatalities committed while these vehicles are being operated could have been prevented if the operators had been properly trained and/or had properly protected themselves. Oftentimes, the operators of these vehicles are not wearing seatbelts and/or seatbelts are not even provided for their use. If such a vehicle overturns, because of its weight, the operator can be crushed.
Because many of these industrial accidents are preventable, proper training standards should include specified training, seatbelts, overhead protective devices, alarms and proper maintenance of these forklift trucks. If these dangerous vehicles are not properly maintained and/or the operator is not properly trained, serious accidents are foreseeable.
One reason the public may not be as aware of these types of accidents is because they are typically covered by workers’ compensation where lawsuits are not involved. If one employee injuries a co-employee, the claim is covered by workers’ compensation laws not by liability statutes. However, our firm has been involved in cases where a forklift driver injured a third party, not a co-employee, such as a truck driver or another person present on a plant’s premises when the forklift was being operated. In such cases, litigation oftentimes ensues, again, because the injuries are very serious and the victim typically is permanently disabled and unable to work again. Lawsuits can be a determent to other claims but this provides little comfort for the victim, as we have seen in the past.
If one goes on any search engine one will find the term “forklift accidents” to be somewhat ubiquitous. This is proof in and of itself that these heavy industrial machines are capable of inflicting serious injury and wrongful death if not properly operated. Regrettably, based on the number of these industrial accidents each year, we anticipate that third parties will continue to be injured by these dangerous instrumentalities at an ever increasing pace until and unless there is a greater state or federal penalty for failing to properly train the operators of these machines. OSHA penalties are typically small. Therefore, the biggest financial penalty that can be imposed as a determent may be a lawsuit and jury verdict.