WorkSafe Victoria has urged businesses where forklifts are operated, to review their traffic management plans to ensure pedestrian safety is paramount, after a freight company was fined AUD40,000 for repeatedly failing to address these risks.

Tasmanian Freight Services was recently convicted of a single charge of failing to maintain a safe workplace and was also ordered to pay AUD4,037 in costs.

The conviction follows WorkSafe issuing a notice in December 2022 requiring the company to take action to reduce the risk of forklifts colliding with pedestrians and revise its traffic management plan, after an inspector witnessed multiple safety concerns while responding to an anonymous complaint.

WorkSafe said the concerns included a forklift loading pallets onto a truck and pushing them towards workers on the other side of the vehicle and forklifts operating less than a metre from pedestrians. Other concerns included people crossing a yard without walkways near moving forklifts, products stored across a pedestrian walkway and, the lack of clearly marked ‘no go zones’ for forklifts.

On subsequent visits to the company’s site at Sunshine in May, July and August in 2023, WorkSafe inspectors found numerous additional causes for concern. 

Among these was a truck driver rebuking a forklift operator for coming too close to him, forklifts driving over walkways while pedestrians were crossing, people interacting with forklifts as they walked across the warehouse and driveway area and, areas where walkways and line markings had worn away.

“It was reasonably practicable for Tasmanian Freight Services to eliminate or reduce the risk by implementing a traffic management plan to ensure that a 3 m exclusion zone between pedestrians and powered mobile plant was maintained and/or designated pedestrian walkways and truck driver safety zones were maintained,” WorkSafe states. 

WorkSafe executive director of safety Sam Jenkin says forklifts and pedestrians can be a dangerous mix.

“If your business works with forklifts or mobile plant, having an up-to-date and effective traffic management plan – and actually implementing it – is a non-negotiable," Jenkin adds.

"This year alone, almost 150 Victorian workers have needed time off work after being injured by forklifts so there's no excuse for not taking the risks seriously.”

WorkSafe Victoria says employers using mobile plant such as forklifts should ensure:

• A traffic management plan is in place for pedestrians and powered mobile plant and that it is reviewed and updated as appropriate.
• Pedestrians are separated from moving machinery and that an effective communication system between operators, transport contractors and ground staff is in place.
• Signage is in place and barriers are erected where appropriate.
• Visibility issues are identified and controlled, particularly if lighting is poor.
• Workers operating equipment have the appropriate high risk work licences, as required.
• Machinery and vehicles are regularly inspected and maintained by a suitably qualified person.
• Employees and health and safety representatives are consulted about health and safety issues.