Forklift Safety: A Pilot Study Evaluation of Retrofit Lights

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bobick, Thomas G. ; Decker T ; Gwilliam M ; Hause M ; Socias-Morales, Christina M.
• Description:
  Forklift vehicles are important in many U.S. industries. From 2009 to 2018, slightly less than 1.7 million powered industrial trucks, including forklifts, were shipped from manufacturers to customers in the U.S. (ITA, 2019). Forklifts are used to move supplies and products throughout facilities and onto tractor-trailer vehicles for delivery to customers nationwide. For each forklift being used, typically one or two pedestrian workers in the same area are exposed to the mobile forklifts. Thus, numerous pedestrian workers are at risk of being injured, sometimes fatally. The initial research conducted on forklifts by NIOSH (2001) indicates that forklift injuries and fatalities are mainly due to vehicle overturns, bystander (pedestrian worker) struck-by events and crushed-by-forklift events. ... KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. Blue and red lights were retrofitted onto three forklifts and used for 4 months in a warehouse environment to increase the awareness of approaching vehicles. 2. A short list of open-ended discussion questions pertaining to the retrofit lights was administered to nine employees who were operators and pedestrians. 3. Feedback indicates that all nine employees thought the addition of the lights increased the visibility of the forklifts and improved safety by making the vehicles more conspicuous. ... Future studies are needed to expand on this pilot study and confirm the efficacy of the blue and red lights in reducing injuries or forklift damage due to collisions. This could include comparing retrofit blue and red lights on forklifts between larger groups of employees and managers at different work sites, over longer observation periods and collecting more in-depth measures regarding their effectiveness (e.g., changes in annual number of injuries per 1,000 workers, dollar cost in damage to forklifts, annual number of workers' compensation claims). ... Not enough information is available about the use of retrofit lights on existing forklifts. Because of this lack of information, it would be beneficial to other safety professionals if the unsafe situations, which might be avoided in the future because of using the lights, were documented and published in a safety-related journal to help educate others in the safety community. OSH professionals in other warehousing operations can use the results from this pilot study to develop safe working conditions for their operations. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Automobiles Hazardous Substances Lighting Occupational Health Preventive Medicine Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident Prevention Equipment Design Equipment Testing Forklifts Hazard Communication Hazard Controls Injury Prevention Light Emission Motor Vehicles Preventive Measures Safety Engineering Safety Measures Safety Research Signal Devices Visual Aids Visual Fields Warehousing Warning Devices Worker Safety

  More +
• ISSN:
  0099-0027
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  41-45
• Volume:
  65
• Issue:
  12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061643
• Citation:
  Prof Saf 2020 Dec; 65(12):41-45
• Contact Point Address:
  Thomas G. Bobick, Ph.D., P.E., CSP, CPE, Division of Safety Research (DSR), NIOSH, Morgantown, WV
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2021
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Professional Safety
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:84092e044e57a9650752f0b1cacc03cc37984f227ac81d449458468d123bf4629b0497c7ea724c1a5e0d3807236f08ca92e5d5f1fcbda1188584d2a5e5296cec
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225107/cdc_225107_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 341.80 KB ]