A SIF precursor is a high-risk situation in which management controls are missing, ineffective or not followed, and which will lead to a serious injury or fatality if it is allowed to continue. In forklift operations, examples include trucks repeatedly passing pedestrians at speed in a blind aisle, people working under raised forks, operators skipping the trailer restraint check at a dock, or loads carried high through a crossing. A precursor does not need an injury or even a near miss to count; it is identified by the energy involved and the absence of a working control.
The full guide is SIF prevention for forklift fleets, and SIF exposure sets out a method for finding precursors on your site.
Precursors are found in three ways: classifying near-miss and incident reports by severity potential rather than actual outcome, observing tasks where high energy meets people, and using data from proximity, camera or telematics systems that log close interactions nobody reported. The aim is to fix the control, such as separating a walkway or enforcing a dock lock, not to count events. A related term is PSIF, potential serious injury or fatality, explained in PSIF full form and meaning.