re: Man crushed on forklift Baton Rouge Updated victim

I am a certified forklift operator
It ain't no joke

Used to work in a chemical plant when I was a teenager and while at LSU

we would stack pallets of 55 gl metal drums four pallets high, was some very scary shite

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they aren't dangerous at all. Human error/lack of knowledge of the machine/ bad safety procedures accounts for 99.99999% of injuries and deaths on trucks.

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This is what I tell my employees. If this guy was killed by the load crushing him - regardless of what the load contained - he was doing something he shouldn't do. As long as you're in the seat there's virtually nothing a forklift can pick up that will effect the safety cage/roof around you, even if it falls from great height.

You can flip a forklift on its front end fairly easily and on its side with some effort, but from the sounds of it this guy got off the lift and was standing under the load with the mast up. That's like rule #1 with forklifts.

I'm trying to imagine how this would happen? He must have hit a lower portion of the stacks of Sheetrock next to him and they fell at an angle? In order to do that he must not of been going straight in but at an angle or something.

Forklifts are dangerous sure but not really if you operate them under modern safety guidelines. The problems come when people are in a hurry or messing around usually.

The story didn't give a lot of details yet. I would be interested in knowing what type of forklift it was or if he had actually gotten off of the forklift and the stack fell over on top of him.

Also, a lot of people try and jump off of forklifts and that's how they get hurt or killed. Not sure if that's the case or not. One thing is certain though. OSHA is on the way.

A friend of mine from high school was killed in 1999/2000 at Community Coffee after raising a load into the air and for some reason getting off and going underneath and the load came down and crushed him.

That is just amazing. It had to be thousands of pounds coming down on top of him. I've had operators have full metal racks come down on them and the overhead guard held the weight (we just had to dig them out). Sad to hear..

I learned to drive a forklift working the night crew in a sheet metal fabrication shop 11pm-7am at 11 years old (did some family pulling to get around laws) and never once wrecked.

Sad for the families involved.

I'm not reading through the whole thread, but has anyone heard from ole boy that started the fork lift/new job thread a few months back???

I'm a little worried.....

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The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner's Office confirms Darnell Smith, 49, was killed in the accident. An autopsy will be performed Wednesday.

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Guy was just trying to earn a paycheck. Shame. Prayers to the family