The Forklift Near Miss and the Safety Triangle
You might have heard of a forklift near miss, or an almost accident. Most people never think about what happens when a ‘close call’ occurs. We are just happy that the event didn’t happen and we walk away continuing on with our destination. However, when you are in a facility where there’s workers walking in different routes to get their job done, and forklifts are doing the same, the opportunity for the two to meet increases significantly. How many opportunities for a forklift near miss can there be? Let’s take a look at the Safety Triangle.
The Safety Triangle
Understanding forklift near miss history and how the safety triangle was developed is important to understand so you can determine how this affects your facility.
In 1931, Herbert Heinrich, Assistant Superintendent at the Travelers Insurance Company was curious about near misses and was the first to approach the subject. He wrote a book called, Industrial Accident Prevention, A Scientific Approach. He estimated that for every major injury, there are 29 minor injuries, and 300 accidents without an injury.
In 1961, Frank Bird, Director of Engineering Services for the Insurance Company of North America, evolved Herbert Heinrich’s findings with a new large study which included over 2 million accidents, 300 companies and 3 billion hours of human workers. Bird’s findings showed that for every major injury, there are 10 minor injuries, 30 accidents causing property damage, and 600 accidents with no injury or damage.
Although these numbers are quite impressive, in 2003, a Conoco Phillips Marine study took the study one step further. It found that for every fatality, there are approximately 300,000 risky behaviors that are deemed near misses.
Tracking Forklift Near Misses
Tracking forklift near misses, almost an accident, or low level events allows us to understand the risks involved in each facility and how it relates to the safety triangle. With a forklift safety system tracking the forklift near miss, we can gain insights into the trends and issues within the facility. By identifying the cause or the area in question, it is possible to prevent the more serious incident such as injuries, from occurring…or climbing up the safety triangle where injuries or fatalities occur.
Telemetry Dashboard
In the SIERA.AI telemetry dashboard, our forklift safety system track the forklift near miss. On the Dashboard, it will automatically tell you the amount of forklift near misses for a given period of time. You can click on the ‘near miss’ and know which worksite, who was driving the forklift at the time, which asset or lift truck was being used, and when. This information is vital as it take the Safety Triangle and puts real information to the data. You’ll know which worksite is at higher risk of developing an accident as well as the area within the facility, if a forklift driver needs targeted training and if there’s a shift that has more risk than the other. These insights are critical. With these insights, you can implement change that allows everyone to be safer.
If you are interested in our telemetry Dashboard and would like to ‘see’ how you can track the forklift near miss, contact us today at sales@siera.ai or call us at (512) 817 0702.