James Malvaso, ITA president and Edwin G Foulke Jr, assistant secretary of labour for OSHA signing the alliance renewal.

by US correspondent Roger Renstrom
The Industrial Truck Association (ITA) and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) have renewed an alliance aimed at protecting workers from forklift hazards.

According to National Safety Council data, 70 per cent of all industrial accidents are operator induced.

OSHA said effective training may reduce the operator error rate by 25 per cent to 30 per cent. The original ITA-OSHA alliance was signed on January 15, 2004, while Dirk von Holt was ITA president (Forkliftaction.com News #141).

Current ITA president James Malvaso and Edwin G Foulke Jr, assistant US Secretary of Labor for Occupational Health & Safety, have signed the alliance renewal. OSHA's outreach services unit is responsible for managing alliances with various industries.

"The first two years of the alliance resulted in interlinking our websites, placing an ITA-developed daily check list on the OSHA website, an exchange of speakers, including former OSHA secretary John Henshaw, presentations on OSHA's youth rules and accident prevention programs, and briefings on technical topics, like lifting in unison and lock-out, tag-out regulations," said William Montwieler, executive director of Washington-based ITA.

"The coming year will see further developments, primarily seminars aimed at educating compliance officers on all elements of lift truck safety."

The alliance held an inaugural seminar in February for 24 OSHA compliance inspectors at the Tampa, Florida, branch of forklift dealer Ring Power Lift Truck Inc. Numerous pieces of equipment were displayed and used for inspector training.

"If the level of interest is as high as it was for the February seminar, ITA anticipates additional seminars throughout 2007 in various parts of the country," Montwieler said.

At the one-day seminar, a 164-page PowerPoint presentation, "Forklift Safety: Operator, Machine and Environment", provided an extensive primer on all aspects of forklift classes and models, operating practices and critical safety procedures.

Presenters included Kenneth Van Hook, president of Safe-T-Consultants; Steve McDermitt, project coordinator for standards with Crown Equipment Corp; David Norton, product engineering manager with Raymond Corp; and Jim Lyle, chief engineer, global product assurance, with Nacco Material Handling Group Inc.

In post-seminar critiques, attendees suggested some presentation streamlining, instruction on use of daily checklists, explanations about safety devices and inclusion of hydraulics and gravity in the discussion of lock-out, tag-out needs.

The alliance is working on plans for the second in its series of inspector-training seminars, perhaps in the northern fall in a location with a high concentration of forklift use.

"The alliance increases communications between OSHA and the industry," said Chris Merther, ITA manager, technical programs.

In focusing on education for OSHA's in-plant inspectors, ITA's position was that, "with better information, OSHA would be able to work with employers to help reduce accidents with forklifts", Merther said. Inspectors would "know some things to look for on trucks that might need correction".

The ITA represents forklift manufacturers and suppliers doing business in Canada, the United States and Mexico.