Safe in their hands02 April 2013

Forklift truck safety technology continues to evolve and improve with every new model launch. Laura Cork asks the truck manufacturers, and others, to pick their stand-out safety development

When welder Robert Dunroe jumped into a forklift truck, turned the key and moved the vehicle at his place of work, the Cammell Laird shipbuilding site in Birkenhead, he was doing so to save a few valuable seconds and get the task done swiftly. However, his well-intentioned gesture turned into tragedy.

Dunroe suffered fatal injuries when he became trapped between the truck and a lifting beam used on a crane at the Campeltown Road plant. A colleague responded quickly and reversed the truck to release him, but it was too late and Dunroe died four days later from his injuries.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that keys were routinely left in the ignition of forklift trucks and that Dunroe had driven a truck on several occasions without being challenged by supervisors about his lack of training. No procedures were in place to identify who was and wasn't authorised to drive the vehicles.

His employer, Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders, was fined £120,000 in March last year and fined £12,294 in costs.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Richard Clarke said the welder was probably trying to do his employer a favour by moving the heavy welding equipment as quickly as possible, but by doing so lost his life. "A company the size of Cammell Laird should have known better than to have allowed keys to be routinely left in forklift trucks, making driving a truck the easy option for employees wanting to transport heavy equipment."

The dangers of forklift trucks are well known in the manufacturing industry, Clarke pointed out, and added that Cammell Laird has since introduced new procedures to ensure keys are safely locked away and a list of trained drivers is readily available. "If these procedures had been in place before Mr Dunroe's death, then he may well have still been alive today," he commented.

Controlled access
It's a stark reminder of the tragic consequences that can unfold when procedures – or, rather, lack of them – mean that individuals can easily jump in and drive a piece of work equipment without the right (or indeed any) training, albeit for the best of reasons. The lack of up-to-date driver training lists at Cammell Laird was one thing, but it could be argued that selecting forklift trucks with pin code or swipe card access may have prevented the accident occurring.

Pin access has been offered by many of the truck manufacturers for several years. Far from being only a means to control who drives which truck, it has been developed into a more sophisticated management system, giving the employer detailed information on truck use, driver hours – even collision alerts.

In fact, one of the safety advances highlighted by Craig Johnson, marketing manager at Jungheinrich, is the company's ISM Online system. "We've had the ISM system in place for a few years, but have more recently developed it into the ISM Online version," says Johnson. "At the basic level, it means that by using swipe cards or keypads, access to vehicles is restricted to qualified drivers – which in itself can save lives. But more than that, now all the truck data is linked to the manager's laptop so wherever he is located, he can run reports on drivers and vehicles. Also sensors can be set on the truck to immediately alert the manager if a truck has a collision, however minor."

Truck versatility
The British Industrial Truck Association (BITA) represents 73 forklift truck manufacturers, dealers and service companies, so is well placed to comment on the sector's safety advances. BITA's secretary-general James Clark says the truck manufacturers have worked hard to provide innovative safety features to help lower the number of workplace transport injuries – in particular, the 'drive by' strikes. "The design of lift trucks, with the steering axle at the back, holds the key to their versatility," he points out, "but HSE statistics show it remains all too easy to accidentally hit a pedestrian or trap someone against warehouse racking."

Clarke says prominent safety additions include 'white noise' reverse alarms which emit multi-frequency bursts of noise. And, he adds: "More advanced systems being explored include rear-mounted sensors, connected to an auto-braking system that kicks in when danger is sensed near the truck." By danger, of course, he means product or pedestrian. Pedestrian sensors are already available from third party suppliers , but there are moves afoot by certain truck manufacturers to incorporate this pedestrian sensing feature directly into their future truck designs.

BITA's view? "Technological advances are to be embraced, provided normal safe working practices are not compromised in any way. At the same time, training, best practice and preventative measures all have vital roles in minimising danger – there's really no substitute for operator vigilance or for busy sites to have clear demarcation of pedestrian and vehicle routes."

One of the industry's best known safety advances is Toyota Material Handling's System of Active Stability (SAS). Previewed on BBC's Tomorrow's World in 1999, the SAS was introduced later that year and has since been fitted to every Toyota-branded truck. Today, SAS is incorporated on 500,000 trucks worldwide.

Dave Rylance, Toyota's counterbalance product manager, says there are six key features to SAS, driven by 10 sensors, three actuators and a controller. "Crucially, there are interactive controls with the mast, so if it is lifted beyond a certain height, the system senses the load on the forks and won't allow the driver to tilt back at full speed. This would create significant movement very quickly and the load could slip back," explains Rylance. "SAS also prevents full tilt forwards if the load is at height, which has the potential to be a very dangerous situation. Instead, the truck senses the load and reduces the angle of forward tilt."

While other manufacturers have since developed similar features, Toyota's patented system is offered as standard on the trucks – importantly, as Rylance points out, on all of its three-wheel trucks. "Whenever we introduce a truck model change, we take the opportunity to look at what we can enhance with SAS," he adds. "For example, auto-levelling on tilt was a standard SAS feature, but only on forward tilt. With the launch of our Traigo 48 range [electric three- and four-wheel counterbalance forklifts], we tweaked the system to include backward tilt control, too."

Curve Control has underpinned safety on Jungheinrich trucks for many years. Put simply, it's corner braking control similar to that you might find in a car. The system automatically reduces the truck's drive speed as it enters a corner, if the steering angle is judged to be excessive. "The system doesn't require any maintenance," says Johnson, "but not only that, it helps to keep other related costs down on the truck because it stops 'square wheels' developing." As well as featuring as standard on its counterbalance forklifts, Curve Control is also incorporated on Jungheinrich's 'junior' products, such as order pickers.

"Where we differ from many other manufacturers is that we make our own motors, electronics and software," adds Johnson. "Many still buy in that technology and they may be buying a controller designed for a tow tractor, rather than the specific truck model they are using it in." The benefit, he claims, is that proprietary technology allows Jungheinrich to carry out system set-up and optimisation more effectively than other suppliers.

Stability is a common theme among safety features highlighted by the truck manufacturers – perhaps not surprisingly, given the still relatively high incidence of tip overs. Hyster's key safety feature on trucks, says brand manager Kate Pointeau, is the Hyster Stability Mechanism (HSM). This system features on several Hyster counterbalance forklift models, including the JXN series, the Fortens and the compact Fortens S range. Essentially, it limits the truck's lean as it turns, so improving lateral stability – meaning improved safety when driving over uneven surfaces, such as outdoor unloading areas, or through entrances/exits to factories and warehouses.

In common with Toyota's SAS and Jungheinrich's Curve Control, Hyster's HSM needs no specific pre-shift checks by the operator, as it's incorporated into the truck's start-up routine.

Cumulative benefits
Clearly, it would be difficult for the Health and Safety Executive to be seen to endorse any particular truck brand but, even so, there are no stand-out safety developments, according to Peter Lennon, HSE's head of workplace transport policy.

"There's no single innovation that we could say has directly reduced the number of forklift truck accidents, but the changes introduced over time have certainly had a beneficial cumulative effect," he notes. "For example, we know that visibility improved with forward-facing trucks and there's better technology now with reversing sensors – although reversing sensors on a truck don't mean you will never run someone over. On their own, none of these make a huge change to the safety statistics. But, when combined with training, good instruction and supervision, and better site layouts, these factors together will help improve forklift truck safety."

Innovation for innovation's sake is not the answer, Lennon stresses: "We'd always support it where it reduces the risk and, importantly, doesn't introduce other risks as a result. Sometimes, there can be unanticipated consequences, which is why technical innovation on its own is not enough.

"Drivers, supervisors and those purchasing the equipment all need to know how successful the piece of kit can be, as well as understanding its limitations."

Added value
There are several companies offering add-on products for forklift trucks to boost safety.

Some, like Scafftag, offer a simple product that takes straightforward visual management to a new level. The company has created a status tagging system for pre-shift forklift truck inspections, maintenance and identification. Scafftag's Forkliftag has a holder and insert system to ensure the latest status is immediately visible at the point of use. The insert contains an easy-to-follow, pre-use operator checklist on which up to 42 daily inspections can be recorded.

Scafftag has also designed a daily inspection booklet – an adaptation of the insert. Up to 252 daily inspection records can be recorded in the booklet, so it can be used for six months at a time.
Others have more high-tech offerings – Transmon Engineering being a case in point. The company's iTEch range of safety systems, for example, includes pedestrian alerts, reversing alerts and zone control speed systems.

The pedestrian alert system (PAS) detects the presence of a pedestrian via an active RFID tag, worn by on-site workers at all times. "The iTEch PAS helps reduce the risk of forklift and pedestrian collision in any operation, particularly when visiting lorry drivers are on site or during busy times when temporary workers are employed," says Transmon's Paul Sercombe.

The reversing system is also based on RFID and uses visible and audible alarms to warn operators of nearby objects when reversing. It also provides automatic braking at distances of less than 0.7m.
Zone speed control can be an important addition for those operations where trucks need to work at higher speeds in certain areas, but still need to work around pedestrians.

Transmon's zone control system automatically cuts speed in designated zones, such as the pedestrianised areas. Each gate or exit has a hard-wired and fixed proximity transmitter, which can be adjusted to suit each site. The trucks have a receiver and, when they enter the zoned area, the system switches to controlled operation. When the truck leaves the area, the system reverts to normal operation.

Laura Cork

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