Pedestrian Alert System: Can Somebody Pay Attention?

A pedestrian alert system helps managers and owners of warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities fight the battle of injuries and fatalities caused by forklifts. Nearly 100,000 workers per year are injured including non-serious, serious and fatal. This means that each year, more than 1 in 10 forklifts are involved in an accident. That’s assuming that there is a single accident for the one forklift.

As a result, there are a growing number of pedestrian safety alert systems vying for your attention. They are clearly sounding the alarm. Can you hear it? Probably not. Here’s why.

Pedestrian Alert System: What is the Responsibility on the Operator?

There are pedestrian alert systems in the market that use tags. Some alerting devices have multiple tags on the forklift, on the forklift driver and on the pedestrian. When it flashes and makes a sound at the driver, it’s the forklift driver’s responsibility to react.

There are numerous tags mounted all over the forklift. This clearly indicates that there are blind spots, or areas where the alert system isn’t monitoring. You know that’s exactly the spot where a forklift accident will occur. Also, the tag indicator has to be mounted right by the operator in clear eye view. Therefore, the tag can obstruct the driver’s view and cause the driver to ignore it. Ignore it?

As reported in Time Magazine, the Journal of Neuroscience led by experts at the University College of London, reported that a person can become temporarily deaf or tunnel vision to environmental sounds or visuals when engaged in a task. They call this temporary deafness or blindness ‘in-attentional’.

According to the researchers, a person’s vision and hearing are located in the same area of the brain. As we are human beings, we have limitations to our processing capacity. Hence, the brain cannot do a good job of multi-tasking and is forced to choose between vision and hearing.

Pedestrian Alert System: Responsibility on the Pedestrian

The brunt of the responsibility in the industrial facility is on the forklift driver. There is a single responsibility which is on the worker or pedestrian…putting the RFID tag on. We both know how that will go. Someone says, “I’ll only be in there for a second,” or “Let me just grab this,” or “whatever…” and guess what happens. The pedestrian or worker goes into the facility without the tag on. They are now at risk. The driver or forklift operator does not know how many people are untagged at any given moment. Regardless of how hard a facility tries to mandate it, you know for certain it will undoubtably happen.

Rely on Proven Technology: the SIERA.AI S3 Safety System

The S3 Pedestrian Detection System is SIERA.AI’s safety solution for a smart pedestrian alert system. To begin, the system uses proactive technologies such as machine learning, AI and IoT. The combination of these three technologies puts all of the power on a single source. The S3 Pedestrian Detection System on the lift truck.

The S3 Safety System is constantly collecting data so you can be proactive about safety in your facility. Ready to see it?