Safetember: Make sure your mates get home safe
We recently stumbled across this month long campaign from our friends across the pond at The Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) and we wanted to share the details with you. It is so easy to get injured on the job, especially in the fork lift industry.
This year’s Safetember theme, ‘Make sure your mates get home safe’, emphasizes the need to increase awareness of those working around fork lifts – not just those operating them. After all, 57% of victims in fork lift accidents are pedestrians. It’s a theme that reinforces FLTA’s belief that safety is a collective responsibility. Leadership must come from managers and supervisors, but everyone has a part to play in making their site and their job safer.
Why is Safetember so important?
The fork lift truck industry has taken great strides forward in safety in recent years, supported by the FLTA’s Safety Month initiatives, their annual National Fork Lift Safety Conference and the Awards for Excellence event, which features both a Safety Award, for products, and a Safe Site Award, for companies which demonstrate the greatest improvement in on-site safety.
The reason they do this – and the reason Safetember is so important – is because the ubiquitous fork lift truck is the most dangerous form of workplace transport in the UK; it is responsible for more accidents and serious injuries every year than even HGVs.
As an industry, they bear witness to over 1100 fork lift truck accidents a year, which means on average there are two accidents every day in the UK. All of these accidents are avoidable, FLTA believes that a lasting change in workplace attitudes and culture is necessary from everyone who works on a fork lift site in order to change this.
How can people get involved and what resources are available?
Throughout Safetember the FLTA website will host various free online resources, which are perfect for things like induction courses, training sessions and toolbox talks. You’ll find safety videos, downloadable posters, free fact sheets and much more.
The FLTA’s Store has a range of tools to support you, including cost-effective employee safety handbooks which spell out the dos and don’ts to anyone working in close proximity to forklifts.
They will also be making the hugely popular Hazard Perception Test available. Developed in partnership with Mentor Training, it provides managers and supervisors with a quick and efficient way of measuring staff awareness of common dangers associated with lifting operations in the warehouse, as well as out in the yard.
Mentor will also share a limited number of PINs for its new video training module. Like previous Safety Month assessments, it has been developed to raise awareness and understanding of the key issues and dangers among those working with and alongside lift trucks. Demand is expected to be high, so be sure to visit the FLTA website on September 1st to request your PIN.
What simple steps can a manager take to improve safety?
Our free four-step safety guide, Safer Site Essentials, gives managers a basic introduction to improving safety on site.
Most importantly, get involved this Safetember. Engage in the discussions, explore the wide range of resources that are available on the FLTA website, check out the fact sheets, download the posters and videos, take part in the online assessment tool… and do everything you can to improve safety and make sure your mates get home safe.
After looking through all of the materials we wanted to share this Safe Site Programme which details a checklist of potential hazards that can be found in the work space.
Do you have any safe working condition holidays that you would like to feature on our blog. Feel free to comment below and let us know. Maybe we will feature you in an upcoming post!
Source: https://fork-truck.org.uk/fork-lift-safety/safer-site-essentials