A hazard is lurking in every warehouse, and yet many employees may not realize it until it is too late. That hazard is the lift trucks that are common to any distribution operation. In fact, recent  statistics reveal that 77 forklift accidents occur every hour in the United States, causing some 90,000 injuries annually. What’s more, forklifts strike pedestrians every day and result in 100 deaths annually in America alone.

But experts say there are some simple measures to be taken that can alleviate the threat of accidents with lift trucks. All it takes is a little planning, and, quite possibly, a shift in perception.

“We rely on our data and our data consistently shows if there is a piece of dangerous equipment and an opportunity for a severe injury, it’s going to be related to industrial equipment,” explains Dixie Brock, manager, warehouse safety, with the third party logistics company, APL Logistics. “And so it is good business sense and makes just good common sense to put focus here.”

Through her 17 years of work with APL Logistics, in addition to OSHA’s Industrial Equipment Regulations, Brock has devised the following recommendations for lift truck safety:

1. Initialize a safety procedure at the loading docks. “You have to have some kind of a policy that will prevent an employee being on a piece of industrial equipment while a truck driver pulls away,” she says. This is the most common deadly scenario in the warehouse. Newer facilities often have dock locks that signal to the truck driver and lift truck operator when it is safe for the truck to pull away. For an older facility, a process with communication check points or another such policy can be initiated.
2. Have a set procedure for mounting and dismounting the lift truck. APL Logistics uses what is commonly referred to as a “3-point hold,” in trucking terminology, whereby the operator has either two hands and one foot on a solid surface as he or she mounts or dismounts, or two feet and one hand planted on the surface.
3. Operators should be taught to keep all of their body parts inside the cage at all times to prevent injury to hands, feet, or other extremities.
4. Pedestrians need to be trained as well. Remember that operators have a limited field of vision.
5. “Employees working in outside dock areas should never lose their line of visibility with the truck driver,” says Brock. “If you can see the truck driver, you’re not going to get run over by him.”

Brock adds that in her company, it is every employee’s responsibility to be aware of these safety issues, “from the general manager down to the newest employees hired. It’s part of their job descriptions, it’s part of their performance reviews, it’s a component of everybody’s job.”