Forklifts are Tons of Trouble for Untrained Operators

 A teenager who was too young to legally allowed to operate a forklift and had received no training hopped onto a lift truck, raised a load to a height of five feet (1.5 meters) and set off.

 He tried to navigate a corner with the machine but the lift truck began to tip because he was driving at an unsafe speed. The 16-year-old was fatally crushed by the forklift.

 In another case, an untrained operator was using a lift truck to transfer a pile of timber. The forklift hit another pile of timber that was stacked to a height of about 13 feet (four meters) and some of the wood fell onto the operator, with deadly results.

 Such unfortunate incidents are hardly uncommon, even among operators who have been trained and certified. Just as having a driver’s license does not make someone a safe driver, being certified to operate a forklift does not guarantee anything.