In North American forklift-related news, three people died, a jury trial concluded with a personal injury award and a firm was fined for a safety violation.

In Durant, Oklahoma, two employees of Allied Stone Inc were moving six slabs of granite, each weighing about 1,000 pounds (450 kg), with an internal combustion Komatsu forklift. Some of the material split, with several pieces falling onto the worker walking adjacent to the load. Wayne L Powell, 59, suffered a head wound and died at the scene, according to the Durant police department. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the 25 June accident.

In Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Martin Tabaka, 27, experienced fatal injuries on 5 July when pinned between a forklift and other equipment at a facility of non-residential general contractor North East Construction. Tabaka received a puncture wound to his groin. Emergency responders flew Tabaka by helicopter to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he was pronounced dead.

In Colby, Kansas, while on an open-air ride with his father, Justin Schroeder, 4, fell from the right side of a forklift and suffered fatal injuries, according to the State of Kansas highway patrol. The forklift's back right tyre ran over the boy, who was pronounced dead at a hospital. The father, Daniel Schroeder, 46, was not injured in the 3 July incident.

Meanwhile, a Cobb County jury in Marietta, Georgia awarded USD1.5 million to a Home Depot shopper and his wife for personal injury damages resulting from a pallet of plywood that fell about 24 feet from forklift tines. The wood caused Larry Reece, 58, of Cumming, Georgia to fall and be knocked into a barricade, resulting in serious neck and spinal injuries including a permanent condition. He has been unable to resume his work in residential construction. Reece accepted an offer from the home improvement retailer for punitive damages. The two-day jury trial focused on the personal injuries stemming from the November 2005 incident.

In the Canadian province of Ontario, a justice imposed a fine of CAD70,000 (USD61,000) and a surcharge on logistics services provider Katoen Natie Canada for a forklift safety violation.

An unidentified operator of an electric reach forklift at the company's warehouse in Corunna, Ontario backed the equipment into a steel rack. The forklift and the racking trapped and broke the operator's leg, according to an Ontario Ministry of Labour investigation. The operator was using the reach truck to lift and pull cartons from storage racks.

The worker was certified as a forklift operator but not for the equipment involved in the accident. The worker's supervisor was not monitoring the worker at the time of the June 2007 incident.

The company pleaded guilty under regulation 851 of the provincial occupational health and safety act for failing as an employer to ensure that the worker was competent to operate the device or was accompanied while operating the equipment by a person with that competence.

Justice of the Peace Marsha Miskokomon imposed the fine and surcharge at a 25 June hearing in the Ontario Court of Justice in Sarnia. Tom Schneider represented the provincial interests in the case. The provincial offences act requires a 25% surcharge that is credited to a special government fund to assist victims of crime.

Katoen Natie Canada, based in Saint Bruno de Montarville, Quebec, is a business unit of privately owned Katoen Natie NV of Antwerp, Belgium which employs 9,300 people in 24 countries and provides a myriad of value-added logistics services and supply chain solutions.