
If the injury is serious, dial 911 immediately. Priority number one is always to seek medical treatment for injured people. WHAT TO DO IF A WORKER OR BYSTANDER IS INJURED BY A FORKLIFT
An inspection of the forklift is not performed on a daily basis. An industrial horn is not available or is not used as required. Forklifts without visual or audio warning equipment or where such equipment is defective. Other common causes of forklift accidents are: The best way to know your rights after a forklift accident is to call an experienced construction accident attorney or forklift accident attorney. When workers and supervisors have not been schooled in safety regulations, loads can fall from heights off forklifts, causing serious injuries. OSHA recommends that forklifts drive their loads as close to the ground as possible, which generally means just 4-5 inches off the floor. When forklifts are driven with an elevated load a highly dangerous condition is created. An experienced forklift accident attorney will investigate whether the forklift was defective when it was built at the factory (product liability,) or whether improper maintenance was the cause, and if so, exactly who was responsible for the maintenance. OSHA recommends that forklifts be driven at a maximum speed of five miles per hour, but that is not possible to do effectively when a worker is provided with a forklift that has a broken speedometer. When untrained or undertrained workers operate heavy machinery, lives are at risk.Īnother frequent cause of forklift accidents are forklifts that are not properly maintained. When companies allow workers to operate without providing the proper training and licensing, they are liable for the injuries to the workers and to anybody else that might be injured as a result. The most common cause of forklift accidents is lack of proper training and certification for operating the machinery. Forklift accidents also frequently injure other workers in the vicinity and bystanders. Construction continues to be a growing industry, so catastrophic injuries and fatalities among forklift operators is increasing rapidly. There are over a million forklifts operating in the United States, and over 1.5 million forklift operators. When forklift operators are injured, they need a Forklift Accident Attorney with many years of experience handling these complicated cases. It is also true that the greatest number of catastrophic injuries to construction workers when they are not used properly or they malfunction. Keep reading to learn how a Morgan & Morgan personal injury lawyer can help.Forklifts, cranes and other heavy machinery are essential for modern construction, and most of the time they are used safely. If you were injured in a forklift-related accident - whether you were operating the forklift or not - you may be able to recover significant financial compensation. These numbers are significantly higher than the median of eight days off for workplace injuries in general.įorklift injuries are common, and they can be severe. That’s why even workers who were non-fatally injured in forklift accidents required (in 2017, on average) 13 days off from work to recuperate. That’s more than 8,500 injuries per year and more than 1.6 fatalities per week.įorklifts are incredibly powerful machines.
These incidents are actually quite common from 2011 to 2017, there were more than 60,000 forklift-related injuries and 614 forklift-related fatalities in the U.S.
A forklift accident may sound like a rare occurrence, but many of us see forklifts on a daily basis because they are crucial to so many different construction projects.