A Guide On Making A Forklift Accident In A Warehouse Claim
In this guide, we look at how to claim compensation for injuries caused by forklift accidents. Lift vehicles can play an important role in warehouse operations, and it is vital employers ensure that these vehicles are used in a safe manner to not only adhere to their health and safety legal duty of care but also to prevent injuries to employees while they are at work.
As the guide progresses, we examine the legal duty of care employers owe to their employees, review examples of forklift truck accidents that could lead to a personal injury claim and look at healthy and safety rights. You can also see how compensation could address both the harm you suffered and the financial impact your injuries caused.
Finally, we lay out the time limit for initiating personal injury claims for forklift truck accidents and cover the benefits of having a No Win No Fee personal injury solicitor from our panel working on your case.
Get in touch today to discuss your potential compensation claim with an advisor. Our free and confidential service could help you learn if expert No Win No Fee personal injury solicitors could support your forklift accident claim. Learn more about the claiming process by either:
- Calling 020 3870 4868.
- Asking about your potential claim online through our website.
- Speaking to an advisor now through the live chat tab below.
Select A Section
- Forklift Truck Accidents Statistics
- How Do You Make A Forklift Accident In A Warehouse Claim?
- How Much Compensation For A Forklift Accident In A Warehouse Claim?
- Forklift Truck Accident Claims Time Limits
- Start A No Win No Fee Warehouse Forklift Accident Claim
- Discover More About Forklift Accident Claims
Forklift Truck Accidents Statistics
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the British regulator for health and safety in the workplace, recognises lift trucks as a potential risk, claiming that they are, on average, involved in around a quarter of all workplace transport accidents.
Latest statistics from the Health and Safety Executive indicate that almost 1,400 non-fatal workplace injuries reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) from 2022/23 involved a person being struck by a moving vehicle.
What Are The Dangers Of Lift Trucks?
Section 9 of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 notes that anyone operating a piece of machinery or vehicle like a forklift or other lift truck should have adequate training, even if they only use it occasionally. Forklift incidents could be caused by a lack of training or insufficient supervision.
Being hit by a moving vehicle is always a significant safety risk, but that danger is heightened given that forklifts can be much heavier than regular vehicles and are often being used to transport heavy objects.
Accidents in warehouses involving forklifts have the ability to create the domino effect, any hazards, such as cardboard boxes left on the floor, can obstruct the vehicle, causing it to collide, resulting in an entire shelving unit collapse and leading to serious worker injuries. If you have been involved in an accident with a forklift driver and would like to know if you have an eligible forklift truck accident in a warehouse compensation claim, call our advisors today.
How Do You Make A Forklift Accident In A Warehouse Claim?
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a duty of care on employers and states an employer’s legal responsibilities to ensure that they take reasonable and practicable steps in keeping employees safe.
Your employer is responsible for the entire warehouse and its facilities. It is vital that forklift operators receive proper training on how to safely use a forklift, a risk assessment is carried out, employees are provided with any personal protective equipment that is deemed necessary, vehicles and work equipment should be properly maintained, and any health and safety discussions are held on operator safety advice.
If a forklift driver caused an accident because they are not trained adequately, then you could make a personal injury claim for the harm that has been caused. Your workplace accident claim has a good chance of going forward if you can prove its eligibility, which means showing that:
- Your employer owed you a duty of care.
- They breached this duty.
- The breach led to an accident where you suffered physical and/or emotional harm.
If your forklift accident in a warehouse claim is eligible, you could instruct a trained No Win No Fee solicitor to help you. Call today to get your compensation claim started.
Examples Of Accidents Caused By Forklifts
Here we look at forklift truck accidents that you could make a personal injury claim for:
- There is a staff shortage, and your employer asks a member of staff who has had no training to drive the forklift. They lose control of the vehicle and cause a forklift crash. Due to inadequate training, they collided with a nearby shelf, causing it to collapse. Falling objects land on another employee’s head, leaving them with a brain injury.
- A disaster strikes when an employer fails to have the brakes repaired on one of the forklifts. An employee drives it unaware of the defect. The driver crashes into another employee, causing them to be trapped under the vehicle leading to crush injuries. Poor maintenance of the vehicle means the employer could be liable for the serious injuries caused to the employee.
To learn more about the process of making a forklift truck accident in a warehouse claim and how No Win No Fee personal injury solicitors from our panel could help you with your compensation claim, please give us a call and ask an advisor.
How Much Compensation For A Forklift Accident In A Warehouse Claim?
If you win a forklift accident claim, you will receive compensation that can reflect two types of damages. One head of a payout is general damages, which compensate for physical pain and mental harm caused. Forklift truck accident claims can range in compensation settlements for instance, someone who has suffered significant disability will be awarded a much bigger payout than someone who has only suffered a minor soft tissue injury.
Those figuring out the value of your injuries might use the report from your independent medical assessment, your medical records and the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG,) a collection of guideline compensation brackets, as a point of reference.
Compensation Table
The table below features guideline figures from the JC compensation brackets. There is also a top entry relating to multiple injuries that is not in the JCG. Please remember that this is only a guide.
| INJURY | SEVERITY | COMPENSATION | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple Very Serious Injuries And Special Damages | Very Severe | Up to £1,000,000+ | Compensation for more than one very severe injury alongside financial losses like care costs and lost earnings. |
| Paralysis | Quadriplegia | £324,600 to £403,990 | Otherwise known as tetraplegia, the paralysis affects the upper and lower parts of the body. |
| Brain and Head | Very Severe | £282,010 to £403,990 | The award is decided based on factors including the injured person’s life expectancy and the level of physical limitation. |
| Amputation of Arms | Loss of Both Arms | £240,790 to £300,000 | A fully aware person is reduced to a state of considerable helplessness. |
| Leg | Amputations (ii) | £201,490 to £270,100 | Below-knee amputation of both legs. A higher aware is given if the legs are amputated just below the knee. |
| Back | Severe (i) | £91,090 to £160,980 | Most severe injuries affecting the spinal cord and nerve roots. They cause a combination of serious consequences not found often in back injuries. |
| Neck | Severe (i) | In the region of £148,330 | The injury could include incomplete paraplegia. Alternatively, it results in permanent spastic quadriparesis or the injured person having little or no neck movement despite wearing a collar 24 hours a day over numerous years. |
| Foot | Amputation of One Foot | £83,960 to £109,650 | The injury is treated similarly to a below-knee amputation due to the loss of an ankle joint. |
| Chest | Traumatic Injury | £65,740 to £100,670 | Permanent damage to the chest, lung(s) and/or heart. Function is impaired, life expectancy is reduced and the person faces physical disability. |
| Other Arm Injuries | Injuries Resulting in Permanent and Substantial Disablement | £39,170 to £59,860 | Serious fractures to one or both forearms leading to significant and permanent residual disability, whether it is functional or cosmetic. |
Special Damages
While general damages will feature in an accident at work claim payout, a further potential head of claim called special damages may join it if you can prove your injuries led to monetary loss. Among the expenses you could attempt to claim back are:
- A loss of earnings if you are unable to work while injured.
- Home adaptation costs.
- Medical costs.
- Domestic care fees.
- Travel receipts.
You will need to ensure you provide documents as proof of your losses, such as payslips, bank statements or invoices, as well as medical records, accident reports, CCTV footage of the accident, witness contact details and other types of evidence in support of your forklift accident claim.
Please let us know if you have any questions about personal injury compensation for forklift accident claims. Our advisors can help you learn more about what you can include in a claim.
Forklift Truck Accident Claims Time Limits
When making forklift accident claims, you must do so within the limitation period. The general time limit for a personal injury claim is three years, due to The Limitation Act 1980. This means that you have three years from the date of your warehouse accident to submit a claim.
While the above limitation period will apply in almost all cases, there can be some exceptions. For example:
- If a person does not have the mental capacity to claim, the time limit is paused indefinitely. However, if no claim has been made for them and they recover their capacity, the time limit reinstates from the recovery date. They will have three years from this point to start their own claim.
- If a person is under the age of 18, the time limit has a pause placed on it until they turn 18. From this date, they have three yeas to begin their own claim, provided legal proceedings haven’t already been started for them.
While the pause is in place in these circumstances, a suitable adult, such as a solicitor or family member, could make a claim on their behalf.
Call today for no-obligation advice or get in touch online to learn more about time limits for a forklift truck accident claim. An advisor can assess your claim for a warehouse forklift accident and connect you with a solicitor from our panel if you’re eligible to seek compensation.
Start A No Win No Fee Warehouse Forklift Accident Claim
You can handle your own forklift accident claim, but if you are still recovering from a forklift injury or want professional guidance, you could benefit from working with an expert solicitor. If a personal injury solicitor from our panel agrees to take on your case, they will offer a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
A CFA is a form of No Win No Fee agreement that means the solicitor does not charge you upfront or during the forklift accident claim for their work. If you lose, you will not pay your solicitor.
Winning the forklift accident claim would entitle the solicitor to a success fee. They would capture a small percentage of your compensation, with that percentage capped legally by The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013.
Contact Us For Your Forklift Truck Accident Claim
Why not get in touch today to find out what your options are for claiming forklift accident compensation? Contacting us is free and our advisors can answer any questions you might have about making a forklift accident in a warehouse claim. As stated all the personal injury solicitors on our panel offer a No Win No Fee service.
An advisor can offer a full evaluation of your potential forklift accident claim. If you have reasonable grounds to seek compensation for a forklift crash or other accident, the advisor could easily connect you to a solicitor.
Whether you have just one question about making an accident at work claim or want our full support with your forklift truck accident claim, please don’t hesitate to contact us today through any of these avenues:
- Phone: 020 3870 4868.
- Website: Ask about your claim online with our web form.
- Live chat: Open the tab at the foot of this page to make a claim.
Discover More About Forklift Accident Claims
Here are some further guides we have created that could help with forklift accident claims:
- If you are asking, ‘How long does compensation take to come through,’ this guide will help.
- However, what happens if you don’t report an accident at work? We discuss what this means for a potential claim.
- A look at manual handling claims and how to seek compensation for a workplace injury suffered while carrying goods or equipment.
These resources could be relevant and helpful for those who have been involved in forklift truck accidents:
- Learn more about Statutory Sick Pay with this government guidance.
- The Ministry of Justice outlines pre-action protocol for personal injury claims in detail.
- You can view your GP health record online through the NHS website. This could be a useful source of evidence.
Thank you for looking through our guide to claiming for a forklift accident in a warehouse. If you want to discuss your forklift accident claim in detail, just call the number above for no-obligation advice. Our advisors can help to get your forklift accident compensation claim started.
