Industrial safety specialist Castell has been invited to present Salvo, its driveaway prevention system, to the Fork Lift Truck Association's Safety Conference 2008. Jason Reed, Castell's UK sales manager, will speak on the company's behalf at Warwick University Arts Centre on 25th September.
Salvo was a finalist in the FLTA's Awards for Excellence 2005. The FLTA describes the items to be presented at this year's conference as "innovative products that have an important part to play in operational safety". The safety conference began in 2003, with the aim of giving practical guidance on issues raised by – and directly affecting – fork lift truck drivers.
According to the FLTA – of which Castell is a member - over 400 serious injuries result from fork lift-related accidents every year, including around eight fatalities. It is estimated that 10% of these incidents occur during loading operations, often when articulated lorries prematurely leave their designated loading bay, creating a gap into which the fork lift then falls. Such an accident is known as a 'driveaway', and it was to eradicate precisely this kind of event that Castell developed its interlocking Salvo range four years ago. The recent HSE booklet 'Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety' recommends interlocks as a safe system of work to combat driveaways.
In essence, Salvo consists of a mechanical key-holding cylindrical lock, which attaches to the articulated trailer, and an electro-mechanical lock inside the warehouse, fitted to the loading bay door. Salvo links the trailer to the bay door during the loading of goods and forces drivers to immobilise the trailer prior to the door being opened. If the trailer is not locked in place, loading cannot begin.
Tickets for the conference are available through the FLTA website: www.fork-truck.org.uk