Last updated: June 2026
Powered industrial trucks land in OSHA's Top 10 most-cited standards nearly every year.
None of this is a case against forklifts: they're essential, standard equipment in almost every warehouse and yard. The data instead points to specific, preventable conditions, mainly operating on an incline or uneven surface, and gaps in operator training, not the equipment itself.
This page collects the current numbers on forklift fatalities, injuries, causes, citations, and costs, with the data year noted for each so you know how current it is. Every figure has been traced to its original source: BLS, OSHA, or NIOSH directly, or a compilation of OSHA's own citation data where the agency doesn't publish a ready breakdown.
A few widely repeated numbers didn't hold up when we checked them. See "Numbers We Checked and Didn't Use" near the end for what we found.
Key Forklift Statistics at a Glance
- Forklifts were the source of 84 work-related deaths in the United States in 2024. (BLS, via NSC Injury Facts, 2024)
- Forklifts accounted for 25,110 DART cases (days away, restricted, or transferred) in 2023-2024, including 15,460 days-away-from-work cases. (BLS SOII, via NSC Injury Facts, 2023-24)
- OSHA issued 2,248 forklift-related citations in FY2024, and Powered Industrial Trucks remained in OSHA's Top 10 most-cited standards in FY2025. (OSHA)
- OSHA's Severe Injury Reports recorded 1,190 forklift-related severe injuries in 2022-2023, including 994 hospitalizations and 196 amputations. (OSHA Severe Injury Report, 2022-23)
- OSHA has estimated that overturns account for about 42% of forklift-related deaths and that training could prevent about 70% of forklift accidents. Both are long-standing OSHA estimates, not current-year measurements. (OSHA directive CPL 04-00-023F)
Why Forklift Risk Concentrates at the Dock and the Ramp
This isn't a forklift problem. It's an incline problem. Several of the highest-severity forklift scenarios, including overturns, load shifts, and loss of control, get worse on inclines and uneven surfaces.
OSHA's own directive identifies overturns as a leading fatal forklift event and names sloped and uneven surfaces among the workplace conditions that affect safe truck operation. A yard ramp puts a forklift on a grade for every load, which is precisely the condition that raises overturn risk, and conditions like rain, ice, or snow make that grade harder to manage safely.
A surface-mounted dock lift keeps the forklift on a level platform through the entire cycle, which removes the incline rather than managing it. A dock lift doesn't replace the forklift or work around it; it gives the forklift the same level, stable surface it already expects everywhere else in the warehouse, just extended out to the truck. For a closer look at how a level lift compares with a sloped approach, see the surface-mounted alternative to ramps and docks.
Fatalities
- 84 workers died in incidents involving forklifts, order pickers, or platform trucks in 2024, the most recent year available. (BLS, via NSC Injury Facts, 2024)
- Forklift fatality counts have stayed in a fairly consistent band over the past decade, generally in the 70s to mid-80s each year. (BLS / NSC Injury Facts)
- OSHA estimates that overturns account for about 42% of all forklift-related deaths. (OSHA directive, based on 2015 BLS data; a conflicting older estimate exists, see "Numbers We Checked and Didn't Use" below.)
- Pedestrians struck by the vehicle are the leading fatal event involving lift trucks. (BLS data cited in the same OSHA directive; no percentage share is available from a primary source, so the ranking, not a share, is the citable fact.)
Nonfatal Injuries
- Forklifts were the source of 25,110 DART cases in 2023-2024, including 15,460 days-away-from-work cases. (BLS SOII, via NSC Injury Facts)
- DART means days away, restricted, or transferred, not a count of all forklift injuries.
- OSHA's Severe Injury Reports recorded 1,190 forklift-related severe injuries in 2022-2023, including 994 hospitalizations and 196 amputations. This dataset covers establishments under federal OSHA jurisdiction, roughly half of U.S. workers, so it undercounts nationally. (OSHA Severe Injury Report)
- An older, widely repeated OSHA estimate puts forklift injuries at 35,000 serious and 62,000 non-serious per year. Treat it as historical context, not current data. (OSHA directive)
A note on comparing years: BLS updated its injury and illness classification system beginning with the 2023 data year and moved detailed nonfatal reporting to a two-year cycle. Counts before and after that break are not directly comparable.
OSHA Citations and Penalties
Forklifts fall under OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.178, Powered Industrial Trucks.
- OSHA issued 2,248 forklift-related citations in FY2024, ranking the standard sixth on the Top 10 that year. (citation and penalty detail, FY2024)
- The most-cited forklift subsection is 1910.178(l)(1), Safe Operation, with 531 citations. (FY2024)
- Forklift-related violations carried more than $8 million in proposed penalties. (FY2024)
- Manufacturing drew the highest number of forklift citations of any sector, with 937 citations and roughly $2.7 million in penalties. (FY2024)
- Powered Industrial Trucks remained in OSHA's Top 10 in FY2025, ranking eighth. (OSHA Top 10)
The Cost of a Forklift Incident
Forklift incidents carry costs well beyond any single claim: equipment repair, OSHA penalties, lost productivity while an injured operator is out, and downtime while a damaged unit is unavailable. The penalty exposure alone is well documented, with forklift-related violations carrying more than $8 million in proposed penalties in FY2024.
Most of this cost concentrates in the same preventable conditions covered above, incline operation and training gaps, rather than spreading evenly across all forklift use.
A widely circulated figure of roughly $41,000 as the average workers' compensation claim for a forklift injury is not included here; see "Numbers We Checked and Didn't Use" below for why. For scale, the National Safety Council estimates a societal cost of about $48,000 per medically consulted workplace injury in 2024. That figure isn't forklift-specific, but it's useful context.
How We Sourced These Statistics
Forklift statistics circulate widely online, and many roundups repeat decades-old OSHA estimates without dating them.
We traced each figure to its origin: BLS (the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for deaths and the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses for nonfatal cases), the National Safety Council's Injury Facts forklift page, which compiles BLS data, and OSHA (citation counts, penalties, the Severe Injury Report, and the Powered Industrial Trucks directive).
Figures are reviewed each year as BLS and OSHA release new data.
Numbers We Checked and Didn't Use
Three commonly repeated forklift figures needed more scrutiny than a simple use-or-don't-use call. Here's what we found.
An "average $41,000 workers' compensation claim" for a forklift injury circulates across dozens of sites, and it turns out to be a relabeled version of a different number. The National Safety Council publishes an average cost across all workers' compensation claims combined, regardless of cause, sourced from NCCI's claims database. That all-cause average has shifted with each year's data, landing at roughly $41,800, then $44,200, and most recently $47,300 for 2022-2023 accidents. An older year's version of that general figure appears to have been rounded to $41,000 and relabeled as forklift-specific along the way, with no forklift data behind it. NCCI does not publish a forklift-specific claim average, so we're not printing one.
A "36% of forklift fatalities involve pedestrians" figure is widely repeated, including on osha.com, a private forklift-training and certification vendor, not the federal OSHA agency (osha.gov). That page cites no underlying data for the number. The underlying point still holds: pedestrian strikes are the leading fatal event involving lift trucks, per BLS data cited in OSHA's actual directive. But the specific 36% share isn't backed by a citable source.
A "25% of forklift deaths are from overturns" figure also circulates, and unlike the other two, it has a real source. A 2001 NIOSH study, still cited on an OSHA safety eTool, puts the figure at about 25%. It simply disagrees with the 42% figure used throughout this page, which comes from a newer 2018 OSHA directive analyzing 2015 fatality data, and OSHA hasn't reconciled the two anywhere on its own site. A separate "25%" also appears in that same 2018 directive, describing construction's share of forklift accidents overall, not overturns, which is likely where some of the confusion comes from.
A statistics page is only as good as its weakest number. We'd rather leave a gap than fill it with something we can't stand behind.
FAQs
How many forklift deaths occur each year?
Forklifts were the source of 84 work-related deaths in the United States in 2024, the most recent year available, according to BLS data compiled by the National Safety Council. Annual counts have generally stayed in the 70s to mid-80s over the past decade.
How many forklift injuries happen per year?
BLS recorded 25,110 forklift-related DART cases (days away, restricted, or transferred) in 2023-2024, including 15,460 days-away cases. Separately, OSHA's Severe Injury Reports recorded 1,190 severe forklift injuries in 2022-2023, including 994 hospitalizations and 196 amputations.
What is the leading cause of forklift fatalities?
According to BLS data cited in an OSHA directive, pedestrians being struck by the vehicle is the leading fatal event involving lift trucks, and overturns are the second, at about 42% of forklift-related deaths. An older OSHA source puts that share at 25% instead; see "Numbers We Checked and Didn't Use" for why we use 42%.
What OSHA standard covers forklifts?
Forklifts fall under 29 CFR 1910.178, Powered Industrial Trucks. OSHA issued 2,248 forklift-related citations in FY2024, and the standard remained in OSHA's Top 10 most-cited standards in FY2025, ranking eighth.
Are forklift accidents preventable?
OSHA has estimated that improved operator training and retraining could reduce forklift accidents by about 70%, though that is a long-standing estimate rather than a measured result. Facilities can also remove specific hazards outright: a level loading surface eliminates the incline-related overturn and load-shift risks a yard ramp introduces. Use the Dock Lift Selector Tool to compare options.