Geoff Cox, head of HSE operations for Yorkshire and the northeast in the UK, said there were common features to a number of fatal accidents, and the industry needed to understand better the inherent risks of using this kind of machine.
In 2004/05, there was one fatal accident in the UK involving a pedestrian being struck by a telehandler on a site, and there was a similar fatality in 2003/04. There was also a fatality in the waste industry in 2003/04, where a worker was struck by a reversing telehandler.
Of these three accidents, two were during reversing, and one was during forward travel.
The HSE warned that there was a specific risk every time a telehandler was reversed or used on a site where there was poor pedestrian segregation. It added that there was a risk, due to the operator’s limited visibility, of people walking around the site being struck or killed.
It added that the shape of the machine itself limited visibility, and this could be made worse by the load being carried and the layout of the site.
There are more than 100,000 telehandlers working in the UK.
The HSE said that older machines gave operators problems because, in order to achieve better visibility, they needed to travel around the site with the boom in the air. This design was subsequently changed, but the Executive pointed out that operators often continued to drive with the boom in the air.
The HSE is encouraging users to make sure the right equipment is used by operators who are fully trained in its use. The Executive is also involved in research with UK-based manufacturers and suppliers of telehandlers in a bid to improve the international design standard to which they are built.
