Forklifts and prime ministers don’t mix and prime minister Julia Gillard came dangerously close to finding out why when she visited a Melbourne factory.
Gillard was touring the Linfox distribution centre in Altona as part of her election campaign when a forklift driver appeared not to see her group and reversed towards it, causing several people including the PM to scream at the driver to stop.
Obviously, no-one had bothered to inform the PM or her minders that on average three people are seriously injured by forklifts every week in Victorian workplaces.
Some time after her near miss, she spoke to workers from the back of a forklift and when she stepped off, her high-heel shoe slipped off, providing some light entertainment when Melbourne factory worker Rob Stewart, dubbed “Prince Charming” by the press, stooped to replace it on her foot.
Since early December 2009, there have been 35 incidents reported to WorkSafe involving people and forklifts. The majority involved people sustaining injuries from being hit by a forklift, with a smaller proportion involving people being hit by a load falling from a forklift.
According to WorkCover’s Ross Pilkington, despite years of communicating the message that people and forklifts don’t mix, workplace behaviour does not reflect the fact that these machines will seriously hurt or kill if they hit someone – regardless of the speed at which they travel. – Source Forkliftaction.com
