The forklift is a dangerous machinery. The most recent data have shown that over 100 workers are killed in some type of lift truck accident. An additional 95,000 workers are injured on the job on a yearly basis as well, using these heavy pieces of industrial machinery.
Unfortunately, nearly all of the fatalities are because of forklift turnovers. The next highest percentage of fatalities is due to being crushed between a lift truck and another surface. The next highest cause of fatality is being struck by the lift truck itself and lastly, getting hit from falling items because of a dropped load is the last statistic. Every fatality or injury is quite frightening and awful because of the ability and immense weight of these machines.
Who Must Perform the Training?
All training and assessment for forklift operation has to be taught by appropriately trained instructors. These trainers should have the experience and knowledge to teach potential operators the required skills to assess their competence after that. Several examples of a skilled trainer comprise a person who has a certificate, professional standing or certified degree in their possession, or who has extensive training, experience and knowledge with lift trucks. A good candidate has a lot of experience and has shown the ability to teach and assess industrial truck operators.
There are resources available to pick from if their employer does not wish to perform the training themselves. Like for instance, they could hire in local health and safety organizations, like truck manufacturers, the National Safety Council local chapters, or private training consultants who specialize in powered industrial trucks. There are often local vocational and trade schools that will be very happy to provide several great resources.
There are a lot of websites on the Internet who are committed to forklift safety. Private companies could be found on line that offer forklift safety training services, like written programs and videos. The majority of safety videos could either be leased or rented or purchased. One very important factor to take into account is that simply by showing your employees a video or a series of videos on forklift safety, does not meet the full requirements of the OSHA standard. Succeeding training and skill of the new drivers must be conveyed and assessed by a specific way so as to ensure the complete training has been acquired.
When operators have passed their training requirements, they will be given a lift truck license that enables them to drive a forklift. Valid lift truck certificates are a requirement by organizations so as to keep everybody at the workplace as safe as possible.