Fatality Brings Home Importance of Sounding Horn

Do your forklift operators consistently sound horns when turning around corners or entering trucks? The following story illustrates the necessity for this safety measure:

An Arizona woman lay dead for as long as three days while her husband frantically searched for her. She hadn’t met with foul play, but instead was a victim of a pedestrian incident involving a forklift.

Truck driver Sheila Ross was struck and pushed by a forklift as she walked along a loading dock at a Dole Food Co. warehouse in Yuma, AZ, in late January 2007. No one witnessed the collision.

The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined Dole $9,000 for failing to follow its pedestrian traffic policy and for failing to have forklift operators sound horns on corners or when entering trucks.