by Tom Andel in Chain of Thought

I received a nightmare in my e-mail the other day. The video clip attached to the message actually drove me to distraction—to such a point that I’ll never be able to remove it from my memory.

The message was one I’ve heard before and actually wrote about many times. It was about the dangers and responsibilities associated with working in and around industrial vehicles. The consequences of not doing so are easy to describe and not pleasant to read. Last year I told you about a worker who was killed by an AGV that pinned him against a rack. I called it a “tragic surprise.” But after I posted that blog I went on about my day and didn’t give it a second thought. This e-mail I received the other day changed me from a disinterested third party to an eyewitness.

Imagine starting your day as you do any other. You work in a warehouse where lift trucks and their operators are constantly driving past with their four-ton loads. You don’t give them a second thought—until it’s too late, and that thought is gone the instant one of those vehicles comes up from behind and crushes you flat… >> read full article here

VIDEO DISCLAIMER: Before you view this video you should know that this video is of an actual forklift accident and therefore is very graphic and disturbing. However, in order for individuals to understand how dangerous it is to work around forklifts, we think it is important to make this video accessible for viewing. This is only one of the many types of forklift accidents that HIT-NOT was designed to prevent. If the pedestrian and the forklift in this video where equipped with HIT-NOT, both, the pedestrian and the forklift driver would have been warned of a possible collision.