I have seen a number of operators talking while in the midst of operating a forklift. Usually I see it when I go to survey a location prior to us starting to do their training. The worst of these was a stand up reach truck operator (a truck that requires the use of both hands at all times) using a phone with no hands. He had wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder and we cruising through a shipping dock area full of co workers! I brough the issue to the attention of the shipping manager who notified his people and posted a sign saying if they used a cell phone while driving a forklift they would be fired on the first offense.

There was a fatal forklift accident here in the state of Ohio a year or so ago where both the forklift operator and pedestrian were both talking on phones and the forklift ran over and killed the operator. We use the video clip of this incident in our training. The operator faced jail to since he saw "something" but was too distracted to act. He ended up with probation and a one year suspension of his automobile license. We have modified our training to spend a considerable amount of time talking about potential distractions and the rules for dealing with them. The time operators save in doing it wrong is not worth the risks they take to themselves and others. I see "lack of focus" as the number one forklift hazard and cause of forklift accidents in the U.S. (just my humble opinion, not based on any factual research or study?