WORKSAFE Victoria has released a health and safety solution for developing a forklift traffic management plan.
According to WorkSafe Victoria, the document is aimed at workplaces with forklifts in use that do not have an adequate traffic management plan to ensure pedestrians are separated from forklifts.
WorkSafe Victoria says forklifts cause more workplace deaths and injuries than any other piece of equipment. More than half the people killed in forklift-related incidents in the last 10 years have been pedestrians. Even low-speed forklifts can kill.
Traffic management plans should physically separates pedestrians and forklifts. The plan should include risk controls, and consider ways to eliminate the risks, efficient travel routes, traffic flows, and the possibility of substituting forklifts with other suitable load shifting equipment.
A traffic management plan may use pedestrian and forklift exclusion zones, safety zones for truck drivers, safety barriers, floor markings, containment fences and speed limiting devices and signs.
All stakeholders should be involved in the traffic management planning, and all people at the workplace, including contractors and visitors, must be advised about the workplace’s traffic management plan.
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