carrying two pallets at a time is a high-risk activity.
I was asked once to report on an accident involving a truck carrying double-stacked pallets that struck another employee when travelling load leading.
The truck was used to load a vehicle over a dock leveller from a loading dock. The vehicle was a covered trailer with curtain sides. An employee had been struck by the truck and load travelling forward. The local H & S inspector had raised issues over the practice.
I found that:
the load was two laden pallets weighing, in total less than 1 ton, and well within the rated capacity of the truck being used;
when approaching the vehicle, the truck travelled with the load trailing to the side of the dock leveller before turning to face the leveller with the load leading;
in driving onto the vehicle bed, the loads were being placed side by side;
the truck did not have a free-lift mast, so was unable to raise a single pallet to stack on top of another within the vehicle, so the only way in which the vehicle's capacity could be used to the full was by double stacking;
there was no ramp to allow the truck to operate within the vehicle parking area to load from the ground;
the area around the dock leveller was a pedestrian prohibited zone, identified by cross-hatched lines and permanent barriers, with a gate.
the company's H & S arrangements and safety policy had identified the risk area, the training requirements for the truck operator, and the operator complied with all the requirements;
the pedestrian that was struck was the supervisor, who was supposed to control the area, and knew the risks, having written the safety arrangements, yet he had walked in a prohibited area, in front of the truck, travelling the short distance load leading.
I concluded that he had been the cause of his own injury, and convinced the H & S inspector that there was no case to answer for the company or the truck operator, and that any fault lay with the supervisor himself.