Safety Knights

In general, larger equipment should have the right of way when encountering smaller equipment (or a forklift encountering a pedestrian). Pedestrians have shorter stopping distances and can more quickly alter the path of travel. Of course an operator should be acutely aware of there surroundings and take action when needed. This same principle applies to aviation regulations which requires smaller aircraft to yield to larger ones, because of their ability to maneuver more easily.

OSHA says that pedestrians "should" have the right of way, but there's a lot of variables, such as where they're operating the equipment, operating speed, etc. However, it shouldn't be any different than a pedestrian and a car where the pedestrian always has right of way when crossing a crosswalk.

The best way to avoid issues is to eliminate pedestrian/PIT interactions as much as possible. If you exclude pedestrians from areas where PITs operate then you don't have to work about the interactions.

I know that pedestrians should have the right of way but because the limited fields of vision caused by the load, I think the rule should be that PIT has the right of way and pedestrians in areas where PITs are operating is responsible for avoiding them.

I'd argue strongly that it makes the most sense that forklifts should have right of way, simply because there are more factors that influence a forklift operator's ability to see and avoid pedestrians than vice versa. If a pedestrian moves into a forklift operator's blind spot suddenly, right of way becomes moot because the operator obviously cannot yield to a pedestrian they can't see and are therefore unaware of. The important factor here for me is how small the danger zone around a forklift is. Because larger mobile equipment has bigger danger zones, the operator arguably has more time and opportunity to become aware that an approaching pedestrian that may be heading towards it and about to enter the danger zone. Given how small the danger zone around a forklift is, the forklift operator may not know that the pedestrian is heading towards it until they are almost in the danger zone already. If the operator is distracted for even a second at this point, they may never see the pedestrian coming at all.

PIT operators often have limited field of view. Pedestrians have 360 degrees of view. I disagree with OSHA on this one. Secondly I believe in the laws of weight. If a moving vehicle on a construction site or in industry weighs more than me, that vehicle gets the right of way.