Preventing serious forklift injuries starts with finding the places where people and trucks share space at speed, then removing or controlling that exposure before anyone is hurt. Serious and fatal outcomes cluster in a few situations: pedestrians struck at intersections and aisle ends, operators crushed in tip-overs, and trucks falling from dock edges. Separate people from trucks with walkways, barriers and timed access first, then add speed limits, warning systems and detection where separation is not possible. Track close calls and high-energy events by location, because recordable injury rates alone rarely show where the next serious injury will happen.
The full guide is SIF prevention for forklift fleets. National Safety Council figures list forklifts as the source of 84 work-related deaths in 2024, which is why many EHS teams treat forklift traffic as a serious-injury exposure in its own right rather than as part of a general injury rate. Work through the controls in order: eliminate crossings where the layout allows, engineer separation, then add administrative and detection layers. Running the risk scorer for each site helps rank which zones to address first. Detection systems reduce risk where people and trucks still meet; they do not replace separation, and OSHA 1910.178 does not require them.