A company was convicted and fined $75,000 for failing to provide adequate safety controls for pedestrians that had to access areas where forklifts operated. .
In June 2022 a worker for Drake Trailers Pty Ltd, was struck by a reversing forklift and suffered foot and ankle injuries which required surgery. The worker was required to access the process area several times a day to store or retrieve stock.
The magistrate found that even though the process area had a designated walkway on the perimeter, it was inadequate because there were no barriers, warning signs or visible line markings to separate pedestrians and mobile plant. Further he also found that there were not written procedures on who could access the area and when. Provide such information, instruction, training or supervision to employees of the employer as is necessary to enable those persons to perform their work in a way that is safe and without risks to health.
What lessons can be learned here?
We all know that providing separation between mobile plant and pedestrians in workplaces can be difficult, particularly where there are shared zones between pedestrians and forklift operators.
We are engaged by many companies to provide traffic management control plans and often this require extensive observations to understand the movements of pedestrians and mobile plant operators, only then can effective traffic management controls plans be developed.
The key is to design physical separation where possible and sometimes the opportunities for this seem obvious to us but allude our clients because they normalize the status quo and have become “site blind”. A fresh pair of eyes can be invaluable!
Tips for establishing traffic management controls
- Observe, observe, observe and ask those who use the area how safety can be improved.
- Where possible and where necessary (i.e. high-risk areas) use physical barrier controls.
- If not possible then use the next best thing (be guided by the hierarchy of control)
- Develop traffic management control procedures e.g. who, when & how areas can be accessed.
- Train all workers in the traffic management control procedures.
If you need assistance developing traffic management control plans, procedures and training don’t hesitate to contact YSP. We also have some great training resources in our e-learning library including Mobile plant safety in the workplace and Forklift Safety Basics.