What is a Forklift Near Hit?

When there is a forklift near hit or a near miss, and nobody is there to see it but the forklift driver…who will know what happened, why it happened and if that particular spot could be the next accident. What if the same forklift near hit occurs in the same location by four more drivers? Do you think any of the forklift drivers will bring it up in a conversation? Probably not.

How a Forklift Near Hit Lead to an Accident?

A forklift near hit is the silent preparation or the silent motion and practice before a forklift accident. It has a high propensity for a forklift accident. A forklift near hit may include another piece of equipment such a forklift, the facility itself, the customer product or a pedestrian.

What Can I Uncover with Forklift Near Miss Data?

Forklift near hit data tracks each near miss by every forklift that has the SIERA.AI S2 or S3 Safety System. The best part is that the system is driven by AI machine learning technology and knows the difference between a person and an object. This is critical if you want to know what is at risk. For instance, in 2021 SIERA.AI tracked for its clients a total of 12,300 near miss pedestrians and 27,400 near miss objects. This mission critical data is your guide to identifying and repairing the high-risk areas within the facility.

Next Level Information

Now that I know there were 27,400 near hits on objects, let’s take a further look at the data. Within the incident report, you can sort by worksite, incident by (forklift driver) which asset was involved in the forklift near miss as well as the date and time. Great information to have. What if you want to go deeper?

Let’s Go a Little Deeper

The information in the report will also tell you the distance of the near hit. So, let’s say for instance, the forklift near hit was 5.59 feet. That’s for one near hit. Now take a look at the other reports, and analyze the distance on those. Are they similar? Difference?

Camera

Now we can know what the situation was with the forklift near hit because the camera just took a picture. You know the object, you know the distance, you know where the incident occurred and now you are ready to take action.

Fix the High Risk Area

Now that you know the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ and possibly the ‘why’, you can now do something about it. What are a couple of those options?

Option #1: Change, Modify and/or Install Protection Mechanisms in the Danger Area

The identified area needs to change in some way. But even after the modifications that you make, you need to again track the forklift near miss numbers in order to know if what you changed actually reduced the number of forklift near hits. If it did, then take the win! If it didn’t, more work is needed in order to change the behavior of the area and the drivers.

Option #2: Target Training for the Forklift Drivers for the Specific Area

Regardless if the issue is just the forklift operator, the area of concern or a little bit of both, training the drivers can be instrumental in fixing the problem area. It isn’t necessarily that the issue is their fault and training is needed, the training could be bringing the awareness of the situation to the driver so they can be educated on the danger area.

Did You Know SIERA.AI is the Only Safety System Offering Near Misses?

It’s true. And it’s something you need to take advantage of today so you can improve your safety tomorrow. It’s simple and easy to do and use. Contact us today for a demo.