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Accident Facts and Related Costs
Fact – The overall lift truck
population has grown by approximately 18%, or by 176,730
trucks from 1999 to 2004. The 2004 population was
approximately 1,151,000 trucks.
Fact – The accident rate involving
lift trucks grew by almost 375% from 1983 to 1999, it
increased from about 24,000 to 114,000 accidents per
year during this period.
Fact – Even with this increase in
the accident rate, from 1999 to 2003 there was an almost
41% decrease in the fatality rate related to tip over
accidents.
Fact – There are two basic reasons
for this drop in the number of fatalities. The first is
that in 1999 OSHA changed its training requirements,
requiring that the training provided to operators be
truck and site specific. The second reason is that lift
truck manufacturers such as Toyota Industrial Equipment
have made substantial design changes in their equipment
that help to prevent the tip over accidents that were
the major cause of these fatalities. Toyota states that
their newly designed trucks have not been involved in a
fatal accident involving a tip over.
Fact – In 2005 the Powered
Industrial Truck Regulation (1910.178) was the 6th
most cited regulation by OSHA. This regulation also
mandates that operators be properly trained and that
pre-shift inspections must be completed and proof of
these must be made available to OSHA.
How does an Operators Safety
Training Program help your company?
Fact – A comprehensive Safety
Training Program can improve operator’s performance by
as much as 61%.
Fact – Any accident that involves a
fatality can easily cost a company well over a million
dollars.
Fact – Any accident will raise your
company’s exposure to future OSHA inspections, damage
your company’s image and possibly limit your ability to
do or continue to do business with certain companies.
Fact – There are also other factors
to be looked at, lost wages, lost time, employee
replacement cost, efficiency loss, OSHA citation and
higher workman’s compensation rates.
How
does OSHA calculate the citation amount?
OSHA looks at four penalty factors.
1)
The gravity of the violation.
2)
The size of the business.
3)
The good faith of the employer.
4)
The employer’s history of previous violations.
Even
on the lowest gravity violation (other-than-serious),
the Area Director may authorize a penalty of between
$1,000 and $7,000 per violation. If there are multiple
violations, that will be your multiplier.
Knowing
these facts, it should be clear that providing Operators
Safety Training is a sound business decision. Contact
PennWest Industrial Trucks LLC, for complete information
regarding a training program that will meet your needs.
Click here to view our training schedule. |
