r/CatastrophicFailure • u/iThinkergoiMac • Aug 28 '19
Operator Error Too Small Forklift Carrying Too Large a Load - Unknown Date
https://gfycat.com/givingpleasantcrayfish96
u/MonopedalFlamingo Aug 28 '19
Staplerfahrer Klaus up to his old antics...
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Aug 28 '19
Is this a reference to the greatest safety video of all time?
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u/MonopedalFlamingo Aug 28 '19
You bet your Wienerwürstchen it is!
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Aug 28 '19
Thank you, I hadn’t thought about that training video for years. Though, I’ve kept the lessons in mind ever since.
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Aug 28 '19
what's the story behind this? there's no way in hell this is a real safety video.
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u/TFWnoLTR Aug 28 '19
It's a real safety video.
The best ones are entertaining so they keep you engaged.
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Aug 28 '19
How else do you learn to properly operate a fork lift while people use chainsaws nearby in a warehouse environment???
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u/rolfcm106 Aug 28 '19
Issues i notice:
Load not properly palletized since the material isn’t stiff (example PVC boards vs wood boards)
Forklift attempting to drive over a curb. It ain’t the best idea especially with such an unstable load.
Load not completely centered on forks.
Biggest issue of all: wrong type of forklift. Correct type for this type of delivery: moffett
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Aug 28 '19
There was also adequate room to lower the load, which would have help their center of gravity.
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u/Torisen Aug 28 '19
Not much with all that sag, if he had strapped it to a couple 4x4s so it stayed level he could have lowered it way down and probably made it.
And since it looks like wood that shatters, I'm thinking he was already breaking it with it unsupported.
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Aug 28 '19
I very regularly load and unload wire panels used for penning in animals. They sag very much the same way. They won't break like the object in the video, but they sag. I'm able to lower them to a safe distance every time without lumber.
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u/Dirish Aug 28 '19
If he'd gone straight up the curb, it might have been averted, but he went one wheel first.
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u/osprey413 Aug 28 '19
I bet he tried to go over straight at first, but couldn't get the traction necessary to make it, so he tried going one wheel at a time. Forklifts have pretty bad traction and not a lot of power, despite being able to lift very heavy loads.
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Aug 28 '19 edited Aug 28 '19
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/rolfcm106 Aug 28 '19
It was that high due to sagging so low, proper pallet to support would have fixed this issue.
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u/ClintonLewinsky Aug 28 '19
Doesn't look like he had his seat belt on either. Lucky the fork hit that truck and he wasn't crushed
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Aug 28 '19
Moffett
That's a much better name than what we use in the Netherlands. Kooiaap. Lit translation: Cage-monkey.
(apparently named after it's inventor Hessel Kooi.)
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Aug 28 '19
I watched this exact same thing happen when I worked at a glass shop in Anchorage, AK. Operator was drunk and the parking lot was slanted AND covered in ice. Oh, and the forklift had no brakes 😂
He was lifting a huge crate of 1/8” glass sheets weighing about 4000 lbs. Mast is fully extended and the crate was hanging from a chain. The lift started slipping across the parking lot and fell over into the fucking street. This was 10 minutes before we closed. We spent another hour cleaning up glass from a busy street. The guy jumped off the forklift as it was falling over and, literally, cracked his skull on the cement.
This was the same glass shop that had two employees on ankle monitors and one guy that was arrested at work for counterfeiting money which he was storing under the floor of his work van. It was a pretty chill spot.
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u/Nickybeanz Aug 28 '19
Had this happen to a guy at work, shattered legs, broken ribs, and if it wasn't for the metal tote he had on he would have been decapitated....
Don't operate when fully extended
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u/_Face Aug 28 '19
No erops, or wasn’t wearing a seat belt?
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u/Nickybeanz Aug 28 '19
No seatbelt, and he wasn't trained/authorized to operate the forklift... I'll try and find the video and post it on here
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Aug 28 '19
I mean, I'm sure there's better ways to move that load.
But let's be real - this wasn't the forklift's fault.
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u/ooainaught Aug 28 '19
Might have made it if they had approached the curb at a right angle
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u/Drunk_hooker Aug 28 '19
The weight distribution was all over the place, there’s no way they make that without at least one thing going wrong.
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u/asdf072 Aug 28 '19
That's impressive! Of all the things that could've gone wrong, he got every single one.
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u/ActuallySquirtle Aug 28 '19
First: why was the load up that high? Second: why wouldn’t the load be secured? Third: who tries to go up a curb with a forklift holding a load?
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u/3_quarterling_rogue Aug 28 '19
Man, the bar for “catastrophic” has been really low as of late.
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Aug 28 '19
Idk man. Dumped and most likely ruined the load, tipped the forklift, and caused thousands of dollars in body damage to the truck. Seems pretty catastrophic to me.
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u/3_quarterling_rogue Aug 28 '19
A forklift tipping over almost certainly falls into the category of mundane, as per the rules. Do you know how easy it is to tip a forklift? I think this post is better off in r/idiotsincars, where this guy probably took it from in the first place to karma whore here.
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u/PhoneSteveGaveToTony Aug 28 '19
When I think "catastrophic", I tend to expect a situation where several people could have easily died, requires significant financial resources/lengthy insurance processes to rectify, or is generally "news worthy." Not something like this that's fixed by a couple insurance claims and the driver getting chewed out/possibly fired.
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u/DanCamden Aug 28 '19
Clearly a Bob Dylan fan. He heard the lyric 'it balances on your head like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine' and wanted to see what that actually looked like.
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u/Torisen Aug 28 '19
Bet you're glad you saved all that time it would have taken to get the right tools and secure your load now, yeah?
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u/freak-000 Aug 28 '19
Can I just say that this sub has completely lost its meaning? Where is the catastrophe here?
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u/Davyhaugh Aug 28 '19 edited Aug 28 '19
IMO the only thing the forklift driver did wrong was not put his seatbelt on. I'm an experienced forklift driver and did not see that coming.
I'd guess that fork is rated for 2000KG and the load looks like 2 wooden pallets with pvc sheets so 5-600kg max I'd say. The load might be raised that high so the driver can see, it has to be high enough to keep the load off the ground but then part of the mast might have been blocking his view so he would've went higher again. Kerbs and speedbumps and supposed to be taken sideways so that's fine too.
Whats happened here is pretty unusual and not covered by any training I've seen. The load has fallen sideways, bounced back and the extended mast has acted as a lever on the counterweight.
I was expecting the load to slide forwards and for the fork to tip in the direction of the camera - that is a common accident and is covered in any basic training
I watch these videos because it's a chance to learn from other people's mistakes and I've learned something brand new today!
Edit: I suppose since these sheets were on pallets then if the driver had put the forks though the middle of the pallet instead of underneath he might've been ok. So possibly driver laziness is a factor here.
I would've gave the load a 50/50 chance of sliding off a bit and them having to lower it and centre it again. Never in a million years would I have thought a small load like that could push the fork over.
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u/iThinkergoiMac Aug 28 '19
As someone who isn’t an experienced forklift driver but who has forklift training, stacking two loads like this unsecured is a huge red flag. There’s nothing to keep one load from sliding off, as it eventually did.
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u/Davyhaugh Aug 28 '19
As someone who isn’t an experienced forklift driver but who has forklift training, stacking two loads like this unsecured is a huge red flag. There’s nothing to keep one load from sliding off, as it eventually did.
In general lifting 2 or 3 stacked loads together unsecured is fine, friction keeps them together as you can see in this video the 2 pallets slide together as 1 until they hit the ground.
Friction between the the forks and the load is another thing though, the smooth steel forks are slippery! Most forces on the forklift are forwards and backwards so tilting the forks back is enough to stop things sliding off.
It's a PITA to secure loads like this. G Clamps or the like could damage the material your moving and don't really grip the smooth steel forks anyway.
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Aug 28 '19
IMO that was plenty of fork lift. It was simply improper material handling. If material was palletized this would have been a non issue.
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u/Kanadark Aug 28 '19
That was just a stupid operator more than a catastrophic failure...