Speaking of Safety
As fun as they look to operate, forklifts are a serious workplace hazard. OSHA estimates that there are 110,000 forklift accidents each year and that an American worker is killed in a forklift-related accident every three days. There’s no question that the human costs are high, but forklift accidents hurt financially, too.  According to the National Safety Council, these accidents cost employers an average of $48,000 per work-related disabling injury and $1.39 million per death.
Warehouses need safety too.  When was the last time you were witness to a “near-miss forklift accident” at a busy intersection in your warehouse or distribution center?  Chances are the memory is not that distant if you are one of those forklift drivers. The sad truth is that there are safety directors that have had to experience these events under their watch and what’s worse is, that they’re sometimes limited by budget restraints to properly resolve these problems.
The Most Cited OSHA Standards… it’s a list that changes little from year to year. Every time the latest list of most-cited OSHA standards comes out, it feels a bit familiar. But it’s an important reminder of the safety issues that we still need to work on and that are responsible for more than 4,500 worker deaths each year.