WorkSafe slams Visy safety systems after forklift collision

Visy Packaging was recently convicted and placed on an adjourned undertaking for 12 months at the Wodonga Magistrates’ Court over an incident in 2008 where a worker was struck by a forklift. As a special condition, the company was ordered to pay $112,500 to Melbourne University‘s Marie Tehan Medical Fund.

The prosecution comes only two months after national company Swire Cold Storage was convicted and fined following an incident where a forklift was driven into the path of a worker operating a pallet mover.

“On average, three people are seriously injured by forklifts every week in Victorian workplaces, a totally unacceptable situation,” WorkSafe’s Manufacturing and Logistics Director Ross Pilkington said. “Many of these injuries are due to lack of separation between forklifts and workers. Victorian workplaces need to get the message that people and forklifts don’t mix, and it’s up to employers to make sure they’re separated.”

The incident occurred when an employee was walking through Visy’s Wodonga manufacturing warehouse. She stopped at a crossroad, saw an approaching forklift and thought the driver was signalling that it was safe for her to cross. When she stepped forward, she was struck by a second forklift which was approaching from another direction. As a result of the collision, the woman suffered serious injuries to her leg requiring hospitalisation and skin grafts.

After the incident, WorkSafe inspectors issued prohibition and improvement notices, requiring the company to eliminate the risk of collision between pedestrians and forklifts.

“Despite years of communicating the message that people and forklifts don’t mix, workplace behaviour does not reflect the fact that these machines can seriously hurt or kill if they hit someone - regardless of the speed at which they travel,” Pilkington continued. “In this case, we’re talking about a workplace with a production area and two warehouses where forklifts are operating. There were no physical barriers or marked walkways separating forklifts from pedestrians - instead, they were told to communicate with eye contact and hand signals.

“Visy clearly failed in their duty to keep their workers safe - this was an entirely avoidable incident which should never have happened.

“Workplaces needed to go beyond drawing lines on the ground, and physically separate people from forklift operations. This needs to be achieved either by installing physical barriers, scheduling forklift operations at distinct times so that no people are in the vicinity at the same time, or providing exclusion zones in areas where forklifts operate.

“People don’t seem to realise that if you’re working in close proximity to a forklift, you are at serious risk. Just as you wouldn’t work on the road in the middle of a freeway without having some very distinct physical separation in place, so too should you not work with forklifts unless there is a significant physical separation.”