Injuries after Forklift Trucks Accidents – Injury Patterns, Therapy and Outcome in the Context of the Statutory Accident Insurance

Introduction The use of forklift trucks during work has a high accident potential. The aim of this study is to describe injury patterns, treatment and outcome after forklift truck accidents in the context of the employersʼ liability insurance association. Methods Retrospective data collection of all cases between 2004 and 2019. Excluded were patients < 18 years, without follow-up or with definitive external treatment. Trauma mechanism, injury patterns and distribution, treatment, complications, time of incapacity for work, return to work and impairment of earning capacity were recorded. Results Of 109 patients with 110 injuries, 52.7% showed isolated injuries and 47.3% combined injuries, which affected the lower extremity in 95 cases. There were fractures in 85.5%, including 32.7% in open form. The mean length of stay was 29.1 days (range 1 – 129); an indication for surgery was seen in 80.9%. Surgical treatment required an average of 3 interventions, with significantly more operations for soft tissue closure than for the fractures (p ≤ 0.023). Amputations were necessary in 8 cases; complications occurred in 29.1%. Return to work was possible in 90%, after a mean period of incapacity for work of 33.6 weeks. A total of 40% showed a pensionable impairment of earning capacity. Conclusion Accidents with forklift trucks result in complex lower extremities injuries with the need of multi-stage treatment and show relatively high complication rates. A return to work is often possible after a long period of convalescence, and a pensionable impairment of earning capacity often persists.

Truck and Multivehicle Truck Accidents with Injuries Near Colorado Oil and Gas Operations

Unconventional and conventional oil and gas (O&G) operations raise public health concerns, such as the potential impacts from trucking activity in communities that host these operations. In this work, we used two approaches to evaluate accidents in relation to O&G activities in the State of Colorado. First, we calculated the rate of truck accidents by computing the ratio of accident count and county population. When comparing counties with increased O&G operations to counties with less activity, we found that counties with more activity have greater rates of truck traffic accidents per capita (Rate Ratio = 1.07, p < 0.05, 95% CI: 1.01–1.13). Second, we laid a grid over the eleven counties of interest and counted, for each cell, the number of truck accidents, the number of multivehicle accidents with injuries, the number of homes, and the number of O&G wells. We then applied hurdle count models, using the accident counts as the outcomes and the number of homes and number of wells as independent variables. We found that both independent variables are significant predictors of truck accidents and multivehicle truck accidents. These accidents are of concern since they can have an impact on the people who live near O&G operations.