Forklift Truck Checklist and Importance of Forklift Seatbelts to Prevent Forklift Truck Accidents

The checks of the forklift truck that have to be carried out are as described bellow:

• Examine the truck’s forks are not fitted in an unjust manner including cracks and dents
• Ensure the all forklift trucks are uniformly spaced and parked into position
• The fork truck slide guard is to be strongly fixed and in position
• The driver sitting part of the fork truck should be clean and any dust should not be there because it can give rise to accidents
• The engine section need to be examined for any leakage and the engine belt must be tense with workable tension
• The electrical battery of the truck engine has carefully to be checked, it should be in good shape and the battery acid level is full. The reasonable levels are described in the user guidebook.
• The engine and hydraulic oil level should be full and the cooling system must be working well.
• When sitting on the driver seat, there are basic functional checks that should be considered earlier than driving the forklift truck. The gear must be in neutral condition and the brake pedal is working well, these should be the first checks after getting into the cabin.
• All controls have to be assured for instance the horn, front and back lights, flashing lights, fork controls and all further devices.
• The both forks of the truck should be tried before going for proper use. They should be tried by moving the forks upward and downward.
• The most significant check of all about the truck functions is the brakes. Drive a little the truck gradually forward and backward and apply the brakes to check if work as it should be.

Importance of forklift’ seatbelts

One of the most frequent forklift truck accidents happen when too much load is placed on it. A large number of forklift trucks have seatbelts also in the cabin and accordingly when an accident is about to take place, the seat belt will fix the driver in the seat undamaged and firmly. The similar rules also used for other vehicles, when the people in car are not fastening their seat belts, during the accident, the physical damages are much more than if all were fastening their seatbelt. The significance of using seatbelts is even more critical since even though a forklift moves with much slower speed than any other vehicle, the forklift is an open vehicle and the driver is not safe. The seatbelt is a major factor considered in any forklift truck accident claims during determining the liable party.