…it’s important to have certified operators operating material handling equipment. He had no idea what he was doing and this could have been worse than it ended up being. If he had been a foot further forward, the load would have caused him and the forklift to tumble over

I’m guessing, because the load was wide and tall, he was attempting to raise it high enough to see where he was going. Bringing it up past the center of gravity. Especially for that tiny forklift. That’s an absolute no-no. A load in motion should never be raised more than a few inches off the ground. And he should’ve had a second person with him to aid in directing him. Or run in reverse. But not with the load that frigging high.

After a few minutes of head scratching, he eventually gave up and left the load right were it sat. Probably too because he noticed me documenting his blunder.

Evidently, this operator runs with his forks high up off the ground on a regular basis. Even without a load, this would cause the forklift to lose it’s balance if there was an emergency stop. It’s one of Newton’s Laws of Motion.