Who has the Right Away: Pedestrian or the Forklift
Don’t walk behind a forklift! Who should stop when there is a forklift and a pedestrian working side by side? Technically, the worker or pedestrian walking has the right of way. But is that really the best decision? The tide has begun to turn and say that the forklift truck has the right of way due to the weight of the load they are carrying. Let’s remember, it is a multi-ton machine and carrying extra weight on the front. However, we can train, hang signs, send reminders, and still, we’ll be saying, “don’t walk behind a forklift!” How can safety professionals contain this situation?
Don’t Walk Behind a Forklift
Just last month, a man was killed because the forklift operator did not see the person standing there. As a result, the man was killed. In another incident in Oklahoma, a forklift operator had just finished using the forklift and gave the controls over to the next forklift operator. As the first operator walked behind the forklift, the other forklift operator began to back up and hit the other operator. He died on impact.
Both of these incidents occurred just a few years apart, showing that this type of incident has continued for years. How can we keep pedestrians safe even when they are continuously taught and told, don’t walk behind a forklift!
Safety Measures
Training is the primary way to tell people don’t walk behind a forklift. However, we can put people through training every day and yet it will continue to happen. Then you have signage. Hang warning signs on the walls, in the lunchroom and in their locker room spaces. Does it help, sure, but does it stay in people’s minds? Not necessarily. In addition, there are flashing blue lights to warn workers that the forklift is there, stay away. Even if you install an impact detection device. That is not necessarily stopping the accident from occurring. It’s just going to record to impact.
Unless there’s a forklift safety system installed.
Pedestrian Detection System
A pedestrian detection system or commonly called a forklift safety system is the most secure way of keeping pedestrians and workers safe. Here’s how the forklift safety system works just for this feature.
The AI based camera goes to work by scanning every 60ms searching for people or objects within a specified distance. This means that if you want the forklift operator to be notified 20’ away, or 3’ away, you can. When the AI camera captures the information, the intelligence of the machine learning interprets the information and if it is a person, the operator will instantaneously get notified with an audio and visual alert. The visual alert will be either flash a symbol of a person or a symbol of a box (to represent an object).
In these situations, listed above, if the forklift has started, and the person is behind the forklift, it will immediately show a symbol of a human even before the operator is ready to get started, thus avoiding the accident.
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