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compensation following an accident
illness or injury - nationwide
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Forklifts have various uses, including in warehouses, on construction sites or in factories: all places that have long been familiar to those responsible for drawing up the risk assessments that are so necessary for avoiding forklift truck accidents.
However, one area of forklift use that many risk assessors are increasingly being forced to familiarise themselves with involves the transportation of obese people who are simply too fat to walk.
Although the idea of an obese person needing to be forklifted to get from A to B may at first seem comic, it is a deadly serious problem and, as well as the everyday incidences of this occurring, there are a number of high profile examples that have been picked up by the media and run as "shock stories".
One of these cases, which involved a 495kg man from New York, was picked up by media in 1999. The 46-year-old had to have half of his house demolished so that a forklift could winch him up and transport him to a hospital to be treated for congestive heart failure and fluid on the lungs. And it was not the first time he had needed transporting in this way; however, as one of the workers who transported him commented, "He was more difficult to move this time."
Then there is the case of the "slim line" 50 stone man (he once weighed 88 stone) who needed to be transported by forklift onto the back of a lorry so that he could be delivered to his wedding.
It is necessary for operations like these to be rigorously planned down to the very last detail, and not only because obese human cargo face, in the event of a forklift truck accident, the prospect of personal injury. Workers too, and passers-by, need to be protected from all possible hazards, not least that of being crushed, either by a forklift or an overweight person.
Of course, the rise of the use of forklifts to transport people is much more than a workplace safety issue. In fact, it is predominantly an issue of health, something that is perhaps best illustrated by the growing need for morgues in western countries to buy forklifts in order for them to process obese corpses.
Claiming compensation following a forklift truck accident
One worker in Britain dies every six weeks as a result of a forklift truck accident, and many more suffer personal injury.
Tragically, many of these accidents are avoidable and all too often it is employers, the very people who should be protecting the safety of their workers, who are left exposed as the negligent party.
Fortunately, in incidences such as these, it may be possible to claim compensation.
So, if you believe that some failure on the part of your employer, whether it is training-related, equipment-related or risk assessment-related, has led to you suffering work injury, our no win, no fee solicitors are ideally placed to help you.
In fact, "no win, no fee" does not adequately describe our workplace litigation service because, win or lose, you can rest assured that you will always be protected from all possible costs, fees and disbursements.
And, with our 100% compensation guarantee, no cuts will ever be taken either.
If you would like to speak with an advisor who can help you establish whether it might be in your interests to proceed, call us today, on 0800 10 757 95.
To get things under way online, echat with an advisor or complete an online claim form.
We look forward to helping.
