mekanik
Senior Member
One of the warehouse guys was putting a pallet of parts on the racking in the warehouse with the small Clark LPG powered forklift and he damaged the very unprotected hydraulic brake lines. I was tasked with repairing it. I carefully drove it in the shop using the park brake to stop. I raised the forks high enough so no one would walk into them and then got a ladder and chained the cross bar the forks slide on to the mast and let the forks down on the chain. There was about 8 feet of chain hanging down so I stitched the rest of the chain through the steering wheel and dropped the key on the floor boards between the pedals. It was coffee time. Just as I was walking through the coffee room door I heard someone say "What the F**k". About a minute later one of the parts guys comes in the coffee room his face as white as a ghost and tells me "The forklift doesn't have any brakes" Fortunately he didn't injure himself or anyone else. The service manager gave me heck for not using a lockout tag. I don't think it would have helped.
Now I keep a ring of blank keys that fit everything I work on in my tool box with "DO NOT OPERATE" tag on it. A blank key goes in the ignition with the tag on it.
Now I keep a ring of blank keys that fit everything I work on in my tool box with "DO NOT OPERATE" tag on it. A blank key goes in the ignition with the tag on it.