Fatal Forklift Accident at Concord recycling plant: How much do you know about forklift safety?

The Concord Monitor is reporting that a man was trapped under a forklift and killed last night in an accident at a Concord recycling plant, though police and fire officials wouldn't say how it happened. Concord Fire Battalion Chief Aaron McIntire said that when emergency responders got there the man had suffered "crushing injuries." Fire Chief Dan Andrus said the department sent an engine, ambulance and ladder truck. They found the man dead and "cleared the scene in 30 minutes," he said.

The Advanced Recycling plant is run by Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., a metals recycling business that takes in scrap metal, then sorts, shears, shreds, torches and bales it, sending the processed product off to steel mills. The police department and OSHA will be in charge of the investigation.

On September 3, we put up a post titled "Forklift accident leads to third worker death in Mass. area in one week." Here we discussed that the OSHA website states that every year, tens of thousands of injuries related to forklifts occur in US workplaces. Many employees are injured when lift trucks are inadvertently driven off loading docks, lifts fall between docks and an unsecured trailer, they are struck by a lift truck, or when they fall while on elevated pallets and tines. Because forklifts are so common on work sites, many workers don't realize how dangerous they can be!

“Driving a forklift requires special skills and knowledge,” said Benjamin Mangan, president and founder of MANCOMM, Davenport, IA. MANCOMM develops and provides OSHA compliance safety products and training for general industry and construction. He states “It scares me, how little training some forklift operators receive. It’s every company’s responsibility to make sure their forklift operators are properly trained and certified before they ever get to run a forklift in the workplace.”

Take the following quiz at this link to see how much you know about forklift safety! http://bit.ly/Hav1R

Sources:
Hanna, Maddie. "Fatal accident at recycling plant." Conrod Monitor. 16 Sept. 2009. Web. http://www.cmonitor.com/
"How much do you know about forklift safety? (Quiz)." PlantServices.com. 14 July 2005. Web. 16 Sept. 2009.