Health & Safety / Forklift vs Pedestrian Incident
Forklift vs Pedestrian Incident
Event title: Forklift vs pedestrian incident
Event Date: 4th April 2022
Event Location: Apata Group Ltd
Event Description:
A part pallet was required by EDI, unable to raise Coolstore (CS) by email, they walked out to the CS area to find a forklift driver. Following the conversation (which was held safely), the forklift started to move before the person was clear (at least 3m away) resulting in the rear wheel going over the person’s foot. The incident resulted in minor fracture and bruised toes with time off work required. The process for requesting a pallet from Coolstore was set up as an email system, but there were some timing issues around this.
Initial Actions Taken:
- Incident was not reported until the following day.
Lessons and Recommendations:
- Agree communication process to include who within Coolstore receives a pallet request and ensure
that ‘time required by’ is part of the communication - EDI staff have been instructed not to leave the packhouse to look for a forklift driver, if there is a need to go into CS area, this will be supervised by a CS Manager
- 3-meter rule has been reinforced to all forklift drivers
- Fatigue was discussed, and with low staff levels (due to covid), likely a contributing factor
- Lack of timely reporting was discussed, again reinforced with all and it was stressed that an injury must be reported immediately especially when a forklift involved!