Who bears responsibility for safe lift truck operation? Is it the driver, the employer, or federal regulators? In the face of some new statistics, each group is pointing at the others.

In March, 1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)  issued a requirement that employers train their employees in safe lift truck use, and refresh that training at least once every three years.

Despite the edict, new statistics show that 86 fatal forklift accidents happened over the past four years in just four states; Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi. In October, OSHA "initiated a forklift accident prevention emphasis" for those states to figure out what went wrong. "These workers would be alive today had their employers provided the required training and been diligent in overseeing how workers applied what they had learned," an administration press release said.

But industry sources say that OSHA hasn't done enough to enforce its training rule. The December newsletter from the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association attributes such accident statistics in part to infrequent site inspections by OSHA to ensure the training was actually taking place.

Meanwhile, OSHA is considering a rollback of its seatbelt requirement for forklift drivers. In September, the agency announced it might ease the 1995 requirement under four conditions: if the warehouse is clean, the truck is well-maintained, the truck is used within its limits, and the driver is well-trained.

The Industrial Truck Association is pro-testing the move, claiming those conditions are unrealistic. OSHA moved to ease the rule after the "Big Three" automotive firms complained that seatbelts slowed their productivity, says ITA executive director William J. Montwieler. The agency claims it has received "reams of information" from the car makers, but he says it has not yet shared that data with the ITA. However, OSHA extended its public comment period to January 1, so Montwieler was collecting comments from ITA members at press time.

OSHA estimates there are one million industrial trucks in use across the country, including forklifts, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks, and other specialized industrial equipment.