Details into the latest Top Ten List of Safety Violations have been revealed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which include identification of the most common safety regulation breaches by federal region. Read, “OSHA’s Top 10: The most frequently cited standards for fiscal year 2023,” written by Kevin Druley and published by the National Safety Council’s Safety and Health Magazine on November 26, 2023.
Both Illinois and Indiana are in Region 5, where the top safety violations for the latest reporting year include violations of 29 CFR §1910.178. This regulation is the fifth (5th) most often violated work safety regulation in our part of the country. It is designed to protect workers from harm involving Powered Industrial Trucks, or “PITs.”
Specifically, it “…contains safety requirements relating to fire protection, design, maintenance, and use of fork trucks, tractors, platform lift trucks, motorized hand trucks, and other specialized industrial trucks powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines. This section does not apply to compressed air or nonflammable compressed gas-operated industrial trucks, nor to farm vehicles, nor to vehicles intended primarily for earth moving or over-the-road hauling.”
Workers in Illinois and Indiana asked to operate PITs or to work near Powered Industrial Trucks on the job need to know that PIT safety regulations are being disregarded here at record highs in our part of the country. They should be alert to the increased risk of injury involving PIT work accidents for themselves and their fellow workers.
Types of Powered Industrial Trucks (PITs)
Each day, people are asked to work with Powered Industrial Trucks in a wide variety of industrial worksites. PITs are very useful in moving and lifting things. So, it is common to see workers operating PITS in our local construction sites; factories; manufacturing plants; marine terminals, piers, wharfs, and dockyards; retail outlets (like big box stores); transportation loading docks; and warehousing and distribution centers.
Of course, they are not all the same. A “powered industrial truck” is defined by ANSI B56.1-1969 as a “mobile, power propelled truck used to carry, push, pull, lift, stack, or tier material,” an industrial standard incorporated into federal law. See, 29 CFR §1910.178(a)(2). Different vehicles have been developed, marketed, and sold to meet different industrial needs. A construction site may have very different PIT requirements from a large warehouse facility, for instance.
Different classes of PITs are defined in 29 CFR §1910.178(b). Federal law recognizes “11 different designations of industrial trucks or tractors as follows: D, DS, DY, E, ES, EE, EX, G, GS, LP and LPS.”
OSHA recognizes the following distinctions in PITs usually considered to be a type of forklift on our local industrial sites:
- Electric Motor Rider Trucks
- Electric Motor Narrow Aisle Trucks
- Electric Motor Hand Trucks or Hand/Rider Trucks
- Internal Combustion Engine Trucks (Solid / Cushion Tires)
- Internal Combustion Engine Trucks (Pneumatic Tires)
- Electric and Internal Combustion Engine Tractors
- Rough-Terrain Forklift Trucks.
An easy answer in determining if a vehicle on the job site qualifies as a PIT is that if the vehicle is operated with power (diesel; electric; etc.) and used to transport goods or materials, then it is arguably within the regulatory definition of a PIT and must meet the corresponding safety standards.
The failure to comply with safety regulations for Powered Industrial Trucks puts both PIT operators or drivers and nearby workers in harm’s way.
For more, read Forklift Accidents: Serious and Deadly Industrial Truck Injuries on the Job and High Hazard Industrial Workplaces: 2024 Online Exposure of Accident Injury and Illness Realities.
Most Often Violated Industrial Truck Safety Regulations
The recent OSHA release also explains the specific federal safety regulations that are most often disrespected or disregarded by employers and others with custody, control, or possession of aspects of the jobsite. For Powered Industrial Trucks, OSHA warns us all that the most common citations involved:
- 1910.178(l)(1): Safe operation.
- 1910.178(l)(4): Refresher training and evaluation.
- 1910.178(l)(6): The employer shall certify that each operator has been trained and evaluated as required by this paragraph (l). The certification shall include the name of the operator, the date of the training, the date of the evaluation and the identity of the person(s) performing the training or evaluation.
- 1910.178(q)(7): Industrial trucks shall be examined before being placed in service, and shall not be placed in service if the examination shows any condition adversely affecting the safety of the vehicle. Such examination shall be made at least daily. Where industrial trucks are used on a round-the-clock basis, they shall be examined after each shift. Defects when found shall be immediately reported and corrected.
- 1910.178(p)(1): If at any time a powered industrial truck is found to be in need of repair, defective or in any way unsafe, the truck shall be taken out of service until it has been restored to safe operating condition.
Workers in Indiana and Illinois should be alert to the warnings of this list. There are three big problems here:
First, employers are not providing sufficient training of PIT operators nor are they evaluating the operator’s ability to perform before letting them loose on the job site. Everyone on our industrial worksites needs to be on the lookout for PIT operators who are not able to handle the job.
Second, the PIT itself may not be safe. Common safety violations also involve failures to keep these powered industrial trucks in good working order. Workers need to know that PITs are being used on our sites that are defective, in need of repair, or requiring maintenance.
Third, employers are not doing the required vehicle checks of these powered industrial trucks before they are released for operation in the industrial workplace. These are dangerous vehicles, and they should be checked at least once a day, if not before the start of each shift in a continuous industrial operation.
Right now, Indiana and Illinois workers are at risk of being hurt or killed in a work accident involving a Powered Industrial Truck where either (1) the operator or driver is not able to do the job properly; or (2) the vehicle itself is substandard, flawed, or faulty.
Breach of Duties of Safety and Care for Workers in Danger of PIT Work Accident Injuries
The need for daily inspections of powered industrial trucks is not a novelty or suggested trend. It is required under law as part of the industrial employer’s duties.
For details, read the detailed instructions provided for free by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in “Conducting a Daily Inspection of Powered Industrial Trucks,” written by Hughes S, Bobick T, Afanuh S. Cincinnati, OH: and published on October 2021 as DHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 2022-100.
Furthermore, on all industrial worksites, incompetent PIT drivers should be easy to spot and to remove from operation even if training requirements have been disregarded. Managers, safety professionals, and others in positions of authority on the site should not ignore things like:
- any PIT that is being driven too fast;
- anyone other than the driver or operator being on the PIT;
- a PIT that is being driven into non-designated areas;
- any overload on a Powered Industrial Truck;
- any load that is not properly secured on the PIT; or
- any PIT that is being driven or operated in a reckless manner.
Duties of care and safety for industrial workers involving Powered Industrial Trucks cover both (1) the drivers or operators as well as (2) the trucks themselves.
OSHA is cautioning us that these duties are not being respected on our Region 5 jobsites and this means workers are in danger of harm as a result.
Justice for Workers Hurt or Killed in a Powered Industrial Truck Accident
The new OSHA Top Ten List of Safety Violations reveals that too many industrial employers are failing to take Powered Industrial Truck risks seriously. Workers in construction; warehousing; transportation; shipyard or dockyard work; manufacturing; and more are facing an unacceptably high risk of injury.
When workers are hurt on the job in a work accident, there are state and federal laws that help to provide them with avenues for justice that can include not only worker’s compensation disability benefits but damage claims for things like lost earning capacity and pain and suffering under the laws of negligence, product liability, premises liability, and more.
See:
- Wrongful Death Damages After Fatal Work Accidents in Illinois or Indiana
- Catastrophic Injuries in an Accident: Damages for the Loss of a Normal Life
- Who Can Claim Damages After a Work Accident in Indiana or Illinois?
- What are Legal Damages After a Work-Related Accident in Indiana or Illinois?
Each worker’s claim is unique and warrants its own independent and individual investigation in the causes of the work accident and the identification of all parties who may have legal liability for its aftermath.
For more, read:
- The Two Main Differences Between Workers Compensation and Personal Injury Claims for Accident Victims in Indiana and Illinois
- Work Injuries and On-the-Job Accidents in Indiana and Illinois With Federal Law Protections: FELA, Jones Act, LHWCA, DBA
- Workers’ Compensation and Third-Party Claims for On-the-Job Accidents
- Fatal Accidents and Wrongful Death Lawsuits in Indiana and Illinois
- What is Industrial Hygiene? Expert Protection of Workers on the Industrial Worksite.
Workplace injuries caused by Powered Industrial Trucks are preventable accidents that often have tragic results and we know safety regulations designed to protect against these injuries are being violated in Illinois and Indiana. Please be careful out there!
