# Forklift failure of truly epic proportions



## alloy (Nov 22, 2018)




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## dlane (Nov 22, 2018)

Ouch


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## Ulma Doctor (Nov 22, 2018)

holy S@#$% that was bad


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## benmychree (Nov 22, 2018)

Looks like the pallet racks were under engineered or overloaded.


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## hotrats (Nov 22, 2018)

Appears to be cases of bottled ?? I worked in a brewery, and some of the storage was shelving such as this. The incoming material shelving was deeper - and 3 pallets high. You could put 4 or 5 pallets in each bay, it was a incline roller bay, so gravity feed pallets to the front as ones were removed. Worked OK, until it didn't. There was no way to clear a jammed or spilled pallet but climb up there.  The finished goods (packaged beer) warehouse utilized "robot" forklifts. The robots went rogue on occasion, with predictable results, lol. Never had anything like that though. I think most I ever saw was around 16 pallets of beer pushed over by a robot.


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## pdentrem (Nov 22, 2018)

The first bumped rack leg likely was not anchored properly or not at all to the floor. This makes it easy to knock it out of position and we see what usually happens.


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## markba633csi (Nov 22, 2018)

Look at the loong chain reaction- yowza-  injuries galore I'm sure, if not death


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## Superburban (Nov 22, 2018)

Hard to tell if he bumps the leg, or the cross beam. Either way, looks like an accident was bound to happen. Looks like it is just the uprights, and the cross beams. nothing connecting the cross beams front to back. Pallets are just held by the front, and rear edges. The cross beams are likely near their max weight, and the uprights do not look like they have extra strength to spare either.

If all the uprights were bolted down, they are likely just 1/2" anchor bolts. I doubt this would be different if they were bolted or not. If the upright was hit by the wheel, it would either bend inward if not bolted, or just buckle if bolted, same end result either way. If it was the cross beam that got bumped, it just pulled both uprights inward, and then they buckled, with the weight of the falling pallets adding to the cross beams buckling.

It may have been within the weight the racks were designed for, but there was no safety factor in the design.

I think the rows should have been interconnected, so they could still stand if one side of an upright got taken out.

Surprised they were allowed to get away without big bumpers at the corners of all the racking.

When I lived in Pa, I watched a big warehouse get built. they assembled the racks first, 60 feet tall, and covered several acres. Then the roof got built with the racks for support, and the walls attached to the outside. One big mass of steel racking, with walls and a roof.


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## jim18655 (Nov 22, 2018)

Superburban said:


> When I lived in Pa, I watched a big warehouse get built. they assembled the racks first, 60 feet tall, and covered several acres. Then the roof got built with the racks for support, and the walls attached to the outside. One big mass of steel racking, with walls and a roof.



 Was that the warehouse north of York on 83? I drove by there several times during construction and was amazed at the size of the place. I think it's a food distribution company.


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## Superburban (Nov 22, 2018)

jim18655 said:


> Was that the warehouse north of York on 83? I drove by there several times during construction and was amazed at the size of the place. I think it's a food distribution company.


Correct. It is a food and food type stuff warehouse. I heard that they were doing all the distribution for the Lever Bros soap products made at their balt plant. I hauled a bunch of P&G paper stuff there, when the first half opened up. 

I take it they do not own the products, but they just warehouse it, and attempt to configure single loads of mixed product, going to a single store.


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## JimDawson (Nov 22, 2018)

markba633csi said:


> Look at the loong chain reaction- yowza-  injuries galore I'm sure, if not death



As it turns out there were no serious injuries.


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## Superburban (Nov 22, 2018)

Cleanup needed in aisle 4 - - -ahh and isle 5, and ahh 3, -- and 6 &7-----,oh Boy!


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## Latinrascalrg1 (Nov 23, 2018)

Union shop the driver got disciplinary action,  non union shop they got fired.   From the looks of it the hilo didn't seem to have caused enough damage..... ..it looked like he barely touched the tank with his machine that caused that domino effect!


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## mmcmdl (Nov 23, 2018)

Superburban said:


> Correct. It is a food and food type stuff warehouse. I heard that they were doing all the distribution for the Lever Bros soap products made at their balt plant. I hauled a bunch of P&G paper stuff there, when the first half opened up.
> 
> I take it they do not own the products, but they just warehouse it, and attempt to configure single loads of mixed product, going to a single store.




Lever sold out to Sun Products years back . I worked there until they shut the place down and went to Kentucky and Tenessesee . We had a huge warehouse on-site which was packed . Long before we heard of the sale they were stocking a huge warehouse somewhere up there so you are probably correct on that . Our plant ran 24/7 , I worked 7 nights a week for 15 years , and yes ......................I miss it !! Nice place .  Unilever also closed the ice cream plant up in Frederick Md and their butter plant down on Southwestern Blvd in Baltimore within a year of the soap plant . All union shops . I pass this warehouse all the time , but if you wanna see a big one , head up north from this one a few miles !!


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## mmcmdl (Nov 23, 2018)

hotrats said:


> Appears to be cases of bottled ?? I worked in a brewery, and some of the storage was shelving such as this. The incoming material shelving was deeper - and 3 pallets high. You could put 4 or 5 pallets in each bay, it was a incline roller bay, so gravity feed pallets to the front as ones were removed. Worked OK, until it didn't. There was no way to clear a jammed or spilled pallet but climb up there.  The finished goods (packaged beer) warehouse utilized "robot" forklifts. The robots went rogue on occasion, with predictable results, lol. Never had anything like that though. I think most I ever saw was around 16 pallets of beer pushed over by a robot.




My gosh . I hope there were no beer fatalities on site !


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## Superburban (Nov 23, 2018)

mmcmdl said:


> Lever sold out to Sun Products years back . I worked there until they shut the place down and went to Kentucky and Tenessesee . We had a huge warehouse on-site which was packed . Long before we heard of the sale they were stocking a huge warehouse somewhere up there so you are probably correct on that . Our plant ran 24/7 , I worked 7 nights a week for 15 years , and yes ......................I miss it !! Nice place .  Unilever also closed the ice cream plant up in Frederick Md and their butter plant down on Southwestern Blvd in Baltimore within a year of the soap plant . All union shops . I pass this warehouse all the time , but if you wanna see a big one , head up north from this one a few miles !!




I left Pa, almost 10 years ago to the date. It was a good 7 years before that, When I occasionally did some of the Lever runs. Pickup a trailer full of empty bottles from York, Pa, Haul it to balt. 2 trips we would pull empty trailers back, and a third we would pull a load up to mechanicsburg pa, then take an empty back to Grahm in York.  Talked to a driver several years later, who said the run consisted of three trips, but pulling a load to that warehouse each time. Looking for a different pic, I ran across this one. Looks like it was the first section.




Kinda sad, I bet 90% of the places I drove to more then 100 times in the 15 years I drove, have closed down. I remember one place near Harve De Grace, that was built about 20 years ago, just to make plastic parts for the Durango assembly plant in Wilmington De, which Chrysler has shut down, Wonder what ever happened to the plant.

I think you forgot the link.

I know someone was building a super sized warehouse up north on I81, had to be 250 to 300 doors, and a good 50 to 60 feet tall.


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## mmcmdl (Nov 23, 2018)

Yes . The big warehouse is up on 81 and is a Walmart Distribution Center . That thing is miles long . Unilever hauled bottles 24/7 out of Graham York and Graham down on Eastern Ave . Our drivers used to haul 16 hrs a shift till they got caught and shut them down at 10 hrs  . We put the Eastern Ave plant out of business when we closed . Averaged 300 OTR trucks a day , along with yard jockeys , our drivers etc . The plant you speak of up in Have A Disgrace  is long shut down . Made a bunch of plastic parts and seats and stuff . Name started with an M if my memory is correct . Maybe Marotta or such ??  I also see a big plant farther up 81 . Scandvick . I always wonder if they make carbide inserts in the place ??

Anyway , all the Dundalk plants are long gone . Unilever , GM ,Standard , etc . Amazon owns most of the area now .


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## hotrats (Nov 23, 2018)

"My gosh . I hope there were no beer fatalities on site !  "                                                                                                                     Well, if full case falls, it is trashed. I worked in cold service sending beer to the packaging lines too. many times, would have to send 100-200+ barrels (31 gallon/barrel) to the drain. Enough to make you cry.


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## cjtoombs (Nov 24, 2018)

Racks should have been designed to either prevent forklifts from crashing into them or be able to take an impact without catastrophic failure.  You know one of the drivers is going to hit them at some point in time.  Also, agree with previous comments that they were likely loaded over their design limit.


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