View original at mhwmagazine.co.uk

The incidence of accidents caused by forklift trucks globally are well known – either life threatening, life changing, or which result in death. This continues to impact adversely on the diverse industries across which they operate. What’s more, the 2017 HSE figures show that the accident figures haven’t reduced, with 3.56 people on average hospitalised daily through injuries caused by a forklift of one type or another. Over in the USA, they are responsible for around 85 deaths and 35,000 serious injuries per year, with statistics showing there is a 1 in 10 chance that a forklift will be involved in an accident annually. Pedestrian safety is not an issue to be overlooked. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), close to 20 percent of all forklift accidents involve a pedestrian being struck by the forklift, translating to almost 19,000 people per year. Being struck by a moving truck is by far the biggest problem in terms of fatalities, major injuries, and over three day injuries, with a total number of accidents nearly five times greater than any other type of accident. Detailed research has been conducted why pedestrians do not register forklift trucks in the workplace and, when questioned, most pedestrians injured said…’They Didn’t See The Truck.’ And whilst all of the global manufacturers are developing safer forklifts for the operator, initiatives that could improve the safety between forklifts and pedestrians, so far have proved relatively elusive. That is until now. The UK design team behind FORKLIGHT investigated the problem between forklifts and pedestrians following research conducted into conspicuity (the capacity of a stimulus to be noticed when the observer is not actually looking for it.). As a result, they developed a low cost solution that instantly attracts the attention of a pedestrian when […]