"overturned and nobody was on site to help..."

The most common type of moveable equipment in our industry is the forklift truck. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents involving forklift trucks. Here is a recent incident emphasizing the continued need for forklift truck safety training.

An employee at an aluminium factory in Europe has been killed one day during the week of October 25, 2015 after the forklift truck she was driving overturned and nobody was on site to help her.

The 45-year-old, a staff member at the aluminium plant became trapped under the vehicle after unloading her cargo at around 14.00hrs when the rest of the team was on lunch.

A colleague rang the 112 emergency hotline when he found her, but it was too late to save her. An inquiry has been opened into the causes of the accident, the first fatality at the plant in 22 years.

Managers told the Work Inspectors, who attended the site, that as theirs is a heavy industry factory where employees have to lift objects of considerable weight, health and safety rules are imposed and enforced with the maximum level of rigour and, as soon as worker's death was announced, production was suspended for the rest of the day.

The union and the company expressed their 'deep distress' at the tragedy, whilst left-wing politicians called for greater efforts in preventing the current spate of industrial deaths from continuing.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog offers our sincere condolences to the deceased worker’s family, friends, and coworkers. Their loss will also be felt throughout the region where this workers was employed. News reports talked in great detail about this worker’s activities in promoting safety within the union and workplace. This worker was very well known in the plant and was considered a leader too many. The news media articles talk about the “shock” and tragedy that her death has caused. It is unknown the particular circumstances of what occurred. If further information is found in the news media the APSB will update this post.

Though we never knew this deceased worker, nor any of the multitude of workers who have been injured or killed in incidents posted on this blog. We are profoundly sad about the circumstances of each and every incident. 

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article about mobile equipment hazards:

This incident reinforces our general feeling that no matter who you are in a plant, you too can be injured in an incident. The importance of following your training needs to be emphasized at all times.

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