Risk of ejection – Efficiency of restraint systems for counterweight forklift trucks. Requirements and test method.

Every year in France, from 10 to 12 fatal accidents occur that involve a forklift truck, tractor or stacker. The fatal accident observed most frequently occurs during a lateral tip over.
However, when placing new and second hand forklift trucks on the market, constructors must equip them with “a restraint system capable of maintaining a person on their seat”, according to the terms of machine directive 2006/42/EC. In practice, forklift truck drivers do not always fasten their safety belts, in particular due to the obstruction it causes as drivers must frequently get on and off their driving posts.
The INRS has started a study to estimate the efficiency of restraint systems for counterweight forklift truck drivers in order to propose additional or alternative solutions to safety belts. Therefore an experimental protocol was defined to simulate the complete tip-over of a simplified forklift truck cab with a dummy in the place of the driver. The protocol specifies the criteria used to evaluate the capacity of systems to maintain the driver in the cab and assess its robustness.