As an administrator at NYK Logistics in Findern, Derbyshire, Lisa’s job was to check that every pallet was loaded with the correct contents. Just minutes from the end of her shift she was heading along a prescribed walkway near the container bays and finishing her checks for the day.
The next thing she knew she’d been knocked to the floor and a 3-ton FLT was crushing her leg. The operator of the truck had no idea, but Lisa’s screams jolted him into action. Tragically, as he moved the truck forwards, it tore the skin and muscle from her leg.
At the time of the accident, Lisa was on a taped-off walkway on the floor: a route she always followed.
“When you’re on the same level as the forklifts, a taped-off area doesn’t really give you clear separation,” she explains. “There’s a good reason why we have kerbs and pavements by the sides of roads — we don’t rely on just a painted line to keep them away from pedestrians”.
NYK Logistics admitted breaching health and safety regulations in 2008, according to BBC News. It was fined £20,000, according to prosecution history detailed on the Health & Safety Executive website.
Lisa has lost almost all of her leg following many operations and suffers phantom limb pain. She is now a Safety Ambassador for the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) and an advocate for workplace safety.
You can hear more about her story and obtain a wealth of free safety guidance and resources as part of the FLTA’s National Fork Lift Safety Month Safetember by visiting fork-truck.org.uk/fork-lift-safety/safetember.
Explains FLTA chief Peter Harvey: “It is because of Lisa’s experiences and those of the many hundreds who are killed or seriously injured each year by forklifts that the FLTA mounts its annual Safetember campaign.
“It serves as a focal point for everyone who manages, operates or works alongside a forklift – creating a moment were each can reflect on how they can make their workplace safer. Because no one walks away, unscathed, from a fork lift accident.”
