It is of extreme importance that you use machinery for the job it has been designed for and nothing else. This most certainly applies to forklift trucks too! 

In order to maintain health and safety at work forklift trucks should never be used for lifting or transporting people. If a forklift truck has not had regular forklift truck maintenance carried out on it then they too can pose a threat to the health and safety of those who use the forklift and those in the vicinity. 

Obviously forklift trucks are designed to transport equipment, products and large containers and not humans. Recently there has been a number of incidents where people have indeed climbed onto the forks of a forklift truck and this has resulted in serious injuries and in some cases has even proved fatal.

Recently a man fell from a metal container which was being lifted on a forklift truck and suffered serious head injuries. The container became dislodged and fell around 4 metres to a concrete floor and resulted in his unfortunate death. It was then found out that this practice was common in his workplace as repairs were being carried out on a overhead crane.

The forklift truck was the chosen method of transporting the man however this was not the correct way to lift a worker and to carry out the job safely and thus resulted in a fatality - a tragedy! He should have never been expected to stand in a metal container and for this then to be balanced on the forks of a forklift truck; there are specific machines which have been specially designed to get workers to a specific height in a safe manner.

Believe it or not more than 1.2 million workers are in danger every single year in the UK from death or serious injury. They have not had proper training to work with a forklift truck and these statistics come direct from the Fork Lift Truck Association. 

Do not take risks in your workplace when it comes to health and safety and do not cut corners. It simply isn’t worth it - no price tag can be put on someone’s life! Let’s try do our bit and follow guidelines and regulations laid out so we can work to decrease the number of serious injuries and fatalities caused by a forklift truck in 2012.