Warehouse & Logistics Safety | How to prevent forklift collisions and effectively improve safety?


The popularity and application of forklifts in warehousing logistics and transfer yards have made forklift safety more and more important to people. Forklift safety involves many factors, the safety awareness and operation level of drivers, the safety management and daily maintenance work of managers for forklifts, the inspection level and supervision strength of supervision agencies, etc.

As a common kind of special equipment, forklift has always been a difficult point for safety supervision. According to statistics, nearly 80% of forklift safety accidents are related to pedestrians, and forklift drivers are not the only victims of safety accidents, pedestrians working in the factory are more likely to be victims of accidents than forklift drivers.

* Forklift accident rate by industry share

Forklift accident rates vary by industry, but almost all forklift accidents can be divided into four categories: pedestrian collisions, rollovers, forklift collisions, and loading and unloading picket separations.

01 Pedestrian collision

36% of forklift fatalities are pedestrian fatalities. 20% of accidents involve victims being crushed, while 16% are forklift crashes. These accidents occurred when forklifts and staff were in the same area, thus causing a collision.

02 Forklift rollover

Large fast turns, drivers traveling too fast, hard braking, and incorrect parking and parking can easily cause forklifts to roll over and cause accidents.

03 Forklift collision

The operation of forklift truck is characterized by short-distance transportation and loading and unloading with strong repetitiveness, and the chance of reversing and advancing is basically the same. The view is not wide enough when traveling backwards, which is easy to cause collision accidents. Especially in some loading and unloading areas, the view is poor, and collisions are easy to happen in forklift operation driving, not only for pedestrians, but also for goods. There are also some common collisions including machinery and equipment, shelves, etc.

04 Separation of loading and unloading pickets

Loading and unloading pick plate separation is also a common forklift accident, about 7% of forklift accidents happen when forklifts carry down goods from trucks, the most common ones are: boxcar slow sliding: forklift repeatedly goes in and out, the box is hit to slowly deviate from the loading and unloading board; leaving in advance: forklift driving driver leaves during operation; container sledging: goods and forklift cause movement during loading and unloading; bayonet drive failure: when the landing gear legs collapse, causing the trailer to tilt sideways or forward‍.

The following measures can be adopted to prevent and reduce the impact accidents of forklifts.

(1) Set up forklift special access and pedestrian access to isolate forklifts from pedestrians in space, and also set up warning signs in the area where forklifts are running to remind pedestrians to pay attention to safety.
2) Strengthen the daily maintenance of forklift trucks. Before each use of forklift, the driver conducts daily inspection of forklift and strictly prohibits the use of unsafe forklift.


3)Strengthen the training and safety awareness of forklift drivers. Forklift drivers are licensed to work, speeding, overloading and drunken driving are strictly prohibited; meanwhile, work schedules are reasonably formulated, drivers are reasonably arranged to rest after continuous work, and fatigue driving is strictly prohibited.
4)Install forklift anti-collision warning system.
In addition to the above measures, installing anti-collision warning system is the best way to prevent forklift accidents. Forklifts and staff usually work in the same area, thus causing collisions. In order to avoid collision, improve the safety of forklift and pedestrian mixed environment and reduce the risk of human-vehicle collision, you can use Woxu Wireless collision warning device UG-520 combined with wristband tag UT-229, pedestrians wear wristband electronic tag, forklift installs collision warning light, when people are close to forklift, forklift detects and issues sound and light alarm to remind the driver to pay attention to other operators.

Woxu's forklift anti-collision alarm device has a clear communication system to let the driver know when it is safe to enter the trailer and start the loading and unloading procedure, helping the forklift driver to drive safely and to warn in advance as well as to reduce accidents.

UG-520 Feature Advantages

● supports high precision distance measurement with average accuracy better than 10cm
● warning distance can be flexibly adjusted according to actual needs.
● sound and light alarm and voice announcement
● supports multi-level volume prompting and four light prompting modes
● configuration is simple and easy to operate