HIDDEN COSTS OF FORKLIFT ACCIDENTS
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THERE ARE STILL 8,000 forklift truck accidents in the UK each year, with huge hidden costs to businesses, reveals training company The Resource Group.
Speaking to a regional meeting of United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA) members in Middlesbrough last week, director Peter Brammah said 10 of these accidents are fatal, and while many others do not cause injury, they still damage goods, premises and machinery The cost to business is not just in immediate downtime, absence and damage, says Brammah; there are potentially devastating ripples from serious accidents. "For instance, for every fatality, research suggests that there is a high risk of subsequent suicide by a family member, a colleague who witnessed the accident, or company owner," he says. "The ripples from workplace accidents just go on and on."
Brammah says the key steps for companies to make sites safer are the four Es: education, engineering, encouragement and enforcement