OSHA cites employer for fatal forklift accident
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 12/1/1998
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the U.S. Department of Labor has fined FWM, Inc., of Hudson, N.H., $140,000 for a fatality involving a forklift last June.An FWM, Inc. forklift truck left unattended by its operator rolled down an incline, pinning and crushing a tractor-trailer driver employed by Guy Heavener, Inc., of Allentown, Penn., between the forklift and the side of a flatbed trailer.
According to David May, OSHA area director for N.H., OSHA initiated its inspection on June 23, 1998, when it learned of a fatality which had occurred the day before in the company's outside storage and materials handling area.
"OSHA's inspection found that 1.) the fork truck had been left parked and unattended on an incline without its wheels having first been blocked to prevent its rolling; 2.) that it had a defective parking brake and rear wheel and should not have been in service to begin with, and 3.) that daily inspections of the fork truck, which would have identified and prompted the correction of such hazards, had not been conducted as required," says May. "In addition, employees who operated the fork truck were exposed to crushing hazards in the event of a tipover due to their failure to use installed seatbelts."
Officials of the company chose not to respond to questions from Modern Materials Handling.
The largest portion of the fine stems from the categorization of three of the four citations as willful, the most severe category of OSHA citation.
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