What happens in an instant all too often can have a lifetime of financial, personal, and medical repercussions.
If you have been injured in a forklift accident, you are not alone. OSHA reports that the number of injuries per year (non-serious, serious, and fatal) hovers around 96,800. That’s right! Almost 100 thousand injuries occur per year. To put it another way, 1 in 10 forklifts in the US will be involved in some kind of accident.
What’s even more disturbing are the numbers of people who fail to document and swiftly contact an experienced forklift injury attorney. If you or a loved one have recently been injured in a forklift accident, we strongly suggest you pause reading this article. Stop all research for the moment and instead grab a camera. Photograph everything, from all angles, as soon as possible. Document the injuries themselves, the scene of the accident, any objects involved in the injury (forklift, shelving, any other nearby objects).
Especially in a warehouse environment — where there is often a well-earned sense of pride in one’s work ethic –, no one wants to ‘make a big deal’ of an accident or take time to take photographs.
But this is a mistake. A potentially costly one.
Because even if you or your loved one feels fine the day of the accident, very often days later they will begin to experience pain after effects. By then, the area will have been cleaned up and the external wounds have begun to heal. Document everything. And do so right away!