An Insurance Report on Forklift and Worker Injury in Manufacturing
A new report was just released from Travelers Insurance called, “2024 Travelers Injury Impact Report.”
The company took a look at more than 1.2 million workers compensation claims from 2017 through 2021 in order to identify patterns and trends. The report is comprehensive and graphically telling of its findings. For this article, we’re going to focus only on the section for forklift ad worker injury in manufacturing. With knowing the statistics from the NSC and OSHA, the data won’t be a surprise. What is interesting is what just a single insurance company experiences and needs to pay out on behalf of the manufacturer each year. Let us take a look at the results, and what can be done to lower these numbers to keep your insurance premiums in check.
Forklift and Worker Injury in Manufacturing
According to the Travelers Insurance 2024 report, the average number of days manufacturing employees missed work due to workplace injuries was 67. This is more than 2 months work for a single person at the worksite. Not only do you have to pay for their absence, but now add the cost of temporary worker to cover their responsibility. But let us not forget the hidden costs such as increased inefficiencies, decrease in orders filled and more.
- 10% of the claims were due to being struck by an object, such as being struck by a forklift
- 7% caught in or caught in between hazards, such as a forklift and a racking system
- 16% slips, trips and falls
- 34% overexertion
- 8% repetitive motion
When adding this together, 17% of the insurance claims had or could have had the forklift included in the claim. That would make this the second worst on the list. How can this be avoided?
Forklift Safety System
It is vital for the safety of the facility and its workers to invest in a forklift safety system such as SIERA.AI. The forklift safety system has specific areas that can help reduce the number of incidents.
- Measurement of Impacts: In the S2 forklift safety system, you are able to measure impacts with G-Force. This will allow you to get an accurate reading of what is a defined as a low, medium and high-level impact. This determination is up to you. Next, you can be notified when it reaches a threshold of your choosing. For instance, do you only want to be notified with the high? Medium and high? Or all of the above?
- Pedestrian and Object Detection: based on the AI technology utilized by SIERA.AI, you will know with an audio and visual alert if an object or a pedestrian has come within pre-defined distance to the forklift. Now the operator can take proactive action to ensure safety.
- Partial Detection: Partial detection is important for pedestrians. If a worker is bending over, or on all fours, for instance, then it critical for the worker to be detected. The AI based forklift safety system has the intelligence to identify a person with just two fingers, a bit of a shoe or even part of the cap on a person’s head.
Contact Us!
Contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.