The few times I’ve seen one at work, I’ve noted the operator seems to be almost “one with the machine.”
I suspect it’s akin to trying to dance with a car as a partner.
Depending upon where you’re operating, the heardest part of running a lift truck is keeping track of where all the pesky humans are. You might have dock workers, truck drivers, foremen — LORD knows who all — maybe the Plant Manager’s secretary, and they could pop out from around any corner, at any time, and you can’t ever assume that they know you’re comin’, and won’t just trot right out in front of you.
It’s like driving at night with deer on the shoulder of the highway; you THINK they see you, and you’d THINK they’d be scared enough to run AWAY from the road, but reality has adequately demonstrated otherwise.
There’ve been some positively GRUESOME accidents that happened because a lift truck operator lost track of somebody on foot.