Annual data report, 2026 edition
The State of Forklift Safety in America
An annual analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics fatality and injury data and OSHA's published penalty schedule. Free for press, EHS leaders, and researchers.
Report at a glance
- Fatalities (2024)71
- Nonfatal injuries (2024)8,210
- Max. Serious penalty$16,131
Forklift fatalities (2024)
71
Source: BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries
Nonfatal injuries (2024)
8,210
Source: BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
Max. Serious penalty
$16,131
Source: OSHA published penalty schedule, FY2024
Max. Willful / Repeat penalty
$161,323
Source: OSHA published penalty schedule, FY2024
Forklift fatalities & injuries, 2019 to 2024
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses & Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.
What 29 CFR 1910.178 requires of employers
Source: the text of 29 CFR 1910.178 as published by OSHA. No citation counts are shown, see the note below.
1910.178(l)(1)
Employer must train and evaluate every operator before solo operation
1910.178(l)(6)
Employer must certify training in writing (name, date, evaluator)
1910.178(l)(4)(iii)
Evaluation of each operator at least once every three years
1910.178(q)(7)
Examination of the truck before each shift / each use
1910.178(m)(1)
Safe operating rules for the truck in service
1910.178(n)(6)
Travel at a speed that permits a safe stop
Establishment-level citation analysis is temporarily unavailable
Earlier editions of this report included industry and state breakdowns of forklift citations. That analysis has been removed while we rebuild our citation dataset directly from the U.S. Department of Labor's published OSHA enforcement data, where every record can be traced to its own OSHA inspection number. It will return once each figure can be verified against the official source.
What the published data shows
- 1
Forklift fatalities have not meaningfully improved in six years.
BLS recorded 79 forklift-related workplace deaths in 2019 and 71 in 2024, a flat trend, not a declining one.
- 2
Nonfatal injuries are still in the thousands every year.
BLS recorded 8,210 nonfatal forklift-related injuries involving days away from work in 2024.
- 3
A single Serious citation can cost more than a year of training.
OSHA's published maximum for a Serious violation is $16,131, many times the cost of certifying an operator.
- 4
Willful and Repeat citations are an order of magnitude higher.
OSHA's published maximum for a Willful or Repeat violation is $161,323 per violation.
For journalists & researchers
All charts and figures on this page are licensed under CC BY 4.0 , free to republish with attribution to OSHA Operator (oshaoperator.com). Every number is sourced to BLS or to OSHA's published penalty schedule.
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Methodology: fatality and injury figures are drawn from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (CFOI and SOII, latest available year). Penalty figures are OSHA's published maximum penalty amounts. OSHA Operator is a private training provider not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor.