Annual Safety Conference To Focus on the Importance of Forklift Training
Guest Post for our UK Readers
Over the years there has been a steady decrease in the amount of serious accidents accredited to forklifts, but in the last year statistics have begun to show a worrying trend as these accidents have increased by 4%.
As a result, the Fork Lift Truck Association’s National Safety Week, commencing on the 24th September, has released the programme for this year’s annual conference, which is to concentrate on identifying and reducing the hazards that those who work with or around forklifts come into contact with every day.
The 3 main focusses of the conference are the importance of regular training, the hazards associated with loading bays – which is where most accidents take place – and encouraging a safe speed to reduce accidents and their effects.
Regular Training
The significance that forklift training plays in maintaining a safe working environment is well documented. Over the years many different regulations and legal obligations have come into force to ensure that employers take a responsible role in organising sufficient training for their operatives – and it’s easy to see why.
Operatives who don’t have adequate knowledge of how to operate a forklift truck correctly are not only putting themselves at risk – but those working around them as well, be it colleagues or site visitors. And with the potential results of a forklift truck accident ranging from damaged machinery and stock, to severe crushing injuries and even death – it really is essential that anyone operating a forklift knows how to recognise potential accidents and how to avoid them.
Loading Bays
Loading and unloading bays are one of the areas that an accident is most likely to occur. The hazards often cited as a contributing factor in accidents are tight spaces that limit manoeuvrability and reduce the range of vision, busy environments with people rushing about and incorrect loading of heavy, unusually shaped or large loads. This is especially true when loading and unloading takes place inside containers and lorries.
The conference aims to improve awareness of the hazards in areas like this to support the safety of workers in these situations and ultimately keep loading bay accidents to an absolute minimum.
Safe Speeds
Whether on the roads, at work or in the supermarket, speeding can have disastrous consequences! Whether it’s careless speeding, work stress to increase production or a ‘bit of fun’, it’s essential that your operatives understand the dangers of going too fast.
That’s why The FLTA have invited a representative from Roadside Technologies to discuss the equipment they produce that helps to monitor and control the speed of your operatives on site.
Health and Safety Training Ltd
These are some of the issues members of the FLTA suggested are contributing towards the current ‘slip in safety’ and increasing accident rate, all of which could be avoided with regular training to keep operatives vigilant against safety threats and hazardous situations.
Author Box:
Health and Safety Training Ltd are some of the leading training providers in the North East and offer a wide selection of fully accredited forklift courses designed to keep your workforce safe. The courses are tailored around your working environment and address the above areas of concern and others, including safe manoeuvring, emergency controls and re-fuelling and maintenance procedures.
Luke Smith says
It’s nice that you talked about how operatives who doesn’t have adequate knowledge of how to operate forklift trucks correctly are not only putting themselves at risk but those working around them as well. I went to the pier last weekend and I saw some forklifts being used to load and unload some cargoes. It all seems really simple but I heard you need to finish a forklift training course in order to be able to operate one.