Clayton County, GA -- March 22, 2023, a woman was killed as the result of a forklift accident at a salvage yard off Rex Road in Lake City

Authorities said they were called to the salvage lot along Rex Road on reports of a potential fatality. Their investigations apparently showed that a woman was gathering personal belongings from a vehicle near the gate of the lot. Meanwhile, a forklift carrying a car was passing by, and the driver did not see the woman. The forklift ran her over, resulting in fatal injuries.

Right now, additional details are still under investigation.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

One quote I saw says the incident was said to be "purely accidental." Isn't that sort of a ridiculous thing to say to a grieving family? Did anyone think this forklift driver woke up and said, "Today, I'm going to kill someone with my forklift"? Obviously not. The issue is whether or not this awful event was reasonably avoidable.

First of all, I saw a news report mention that it is "standard procedure for machine operators to honk their horns before going through a gate." I'm not sure where they're getting their information, and I can't confirm right now if they mean that generally or just for this particular location. But even if it was standard procedure, was it followed? And whether or not it was followed, would it have been significant enough to avoid something like this?

If it's true the forklift operator couldn't see in front of them, why were they traveling through an area where visitors would be at all? Did the business taken any steps to have a co-worker spot for the forklift driver so they wouldn't hit anyone? Were any other kinds of precautions in place to avoid this sort of situation? Or, did this business just haphazardly assume people would move out of the way of their heavy machinery rather than the other way around?

Ultimately, I don't know more about this situation than what's publicly available in the news. It would be irresponsible to draw any conclusions without answers to these important questions. But when I saw the headlines, I was sure the news would be talking about this business and how someone was allowed to come to such serious harm on their property—even if the ultimate explanation was reasonable. Instead, I found officials quoted as just saying this was all a big accident. Forgive me for being so blunt, but if I lost a loved one in an accident like this, I wouldn't give a damn if it was "purely accidental." I'd want to know why it happened and whether or not someone needed to be held accountable for that deadly mistake. In all my years doing this job, I can't recall a family I've spoken to in similar situations that felt any different.

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