Since 1992, the NJDOH Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Project has received reports of 22 fatal incidents involving forklift trucks in New Jersey. The FACE project has investigated eight of these incidents:
Case #1:
In July 1997, a forklift operator at a trucking company was killed when he was crushed between the lift's roll cage and a metal beam in a trailer. The victim was reaching out of the forklift when he inadvertently activated a control lever which moved the lift into the beam.
Case #2:
In October 1996, a laborer at a stone fabrication shop was crushed under four 700 pound slabs of granite dislodged from a storage rack. The victim was guiding a slab to the rack when the forklift pushed the stone slabs onto him.
Case #3:
In August 1996, a masonry worker was run over by a rough terrain forklift at a construction site. The victim was crossing a construction lane to a coffee truck and apparently did not hear the forklift's backup warning alarm.
Case #4:
In August 1996, a meatpacking plant supervisor died after slipping and failing 9 feet from the forks of a forklift truck. The supervisor had asked the operator to raise him on the forks so he could get some product samples from a storage rack.
Case #5:
In May 1996, a warehouse worker was killed after falling 9 feet from an order-picker forklift truck platform. The worker was standing on the loaded platform as it was being raised to a warehouse rack.
Case #6:
In April 1996, a warehouse worker was crushed under a 4,000 pound crate that fell from a forklift. The victim was spotting the unsecured crate that fell when the forklift passed over an uneven docking plate.
Case #7:
In December 1994, a textile supervisor was fatally injured when his forklift was struck and overturned by a second forklift falling off a loading dock. The forklift had been improperly positioned near the edge of the loading dock to lift pipes to the roof.
Case #8:
In March 1994, a warehouse worker was killed after failing from a pallet set on the forks of a forklift. The victim was standing on the raised pallet to remove a box from a warehouse rack and fell 12 feet to the floor.
The 14 other reported fatalities included five workers who were killed when pinned between a forklift and an another object, four who died in overturned forklifts and two who were struck by moving forklifts. One worker died when a forklift struck a wall which collapsed on her, one was crushed under a crate when the securing straps broke, and one who fell while riding on the forks.
