On June 16, 2011 the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a new regional inspection program focused on reducing fatalities and serious injuries related to powered industrial trucks and forklifts. This program will examine employers’ compliance with OSHA’s powered industrial trucks standard and related hazards in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi.

In its press release, OSHA’s Regional Administrator for Region 4 in Atlanta, Cindy Coe, stated that “powered industrial trucks are a significant source of serious and fatal injuries to workers.” The program will focus primarily on warehouses and service companies, but inspectors conducting complaint inspections or site-specific targeting inspections will also be looking for violations and deficiencies of OSHA’s powered industrial trucks standard.