Forklift operator dies after backing his forklift off a loading dock.
Authors
New Jersey Department of Health
Source
Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 02NJ081, 2003 Aug; :1-10
On August 30, 2002, a 39-year-old male forklift operator was fatally injured when he was crushed under a fallen forklift. The victim was a full-time forklift operator at a company that manufactured wooden pallets. At 2:48 p.m., the victim was using an 8,600 pound forklift to move waste material into a large, drive-in waste dumpster positioned at the company's outdoor loading dock. The victim had apparently just dumped the waste and was backing out of the dumpster when he backed off the side of the loading dock, falling 3 feet 9 inches to the asphalt. He was partly thrown from the forklift and was crushed under the lift's rollover cage. He was taken by helicopter to the area trauma center where he was admitted with injuries to his hip and leg. Despite treatment, he suffered complications related to his injury and his condition deteriorated. The victim died at the hospital on September 9, 2002, nine days after the incident. NJ FACE investigators recommend following these safety guidelines to prevent further incidents: 1. Employers should ensure that employees are fully trained and certified as per OSHA regulations before operating a forklift truck. 2. Operators should always wear a seatbelt while running a forklift or other industrial truck. 3. Employers should provide safety curbs and railings around the perimeter of outdoor loading docks. 4. Employers should conduct a job hazard analysis of all work activities with the participation of the workers.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.