Also cell phones should be banned in traffic because it causes distractions. Attention in traffic is very important.
For context, I was reversing with a fairly precarious load and saw him walking toward my path. The backup alarm was going, and I even honked twice to get his attention. I finally had to yell loudly to get him to look up and stop.
Thankfully I was paying attention (as I also expect all of our equipment operators to do), but I also expect anyone wandering through active working areas to also be paying attention to their surroundings. These requirements aren't because I want to be a jerk or make employees miserable, it is because I don't want anyone getting hurt. The warehouse I manage isn't a huge facility with 30 forklifts running around, but there is enough activity that I do expect people to be looking around for hazards, and that is a part of the employee handbook and training.
Even OSHA, the lowest common denominator, requires you to clearly delineate pedestrian travel paths. Physical separation is highly recommended. What doesn't fucking help, and hasn't since the invention of motors in 1900, is "We need to talk about how I almost negligently ran you over".
However, I don't think I'm getting 19th century in thinking someone walking through an active warehouse should be watching their surroundings. This is also an area where people pick stock off of rolling staircases, it isn't out of the realm of possibility to have a 45lb case of product be dropped off a rack.
I should have mentioned in the original comment, it isn't just the handbook, we stress during training that this is a potentially hazardous area, and that you need to be aware of your surroundings. My goal isn't to avoid insurance/workman's comp claims; my goal is for everyone to leave at day's end safely & without injury. I realize there is no such thing as legislating safety, which is why we immediately point out any unsafe behaviors. There are unfortunately just some workplaces that by their very nature are hazardous. I spend ~40% of my time in an office environment, and the hazards there are tripping or paper cuts. However, for the warehouse I manage, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect employees to be aware of their surroundings. This is a workplace where there is moving equipment, blind corners, people on ladders, and the possibility of falling objects. The bare minimum in this situation is to look where you are going.
We have pedestrian travel paths, and he wasn't even close to one. He was so engrossed in whatever he was watching on his phone that he had wandered 60' away from where he even should have been to get back to his station. He was paying so little attention he was actively walking away from his destination.
[1] https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/driving-an...
I think if people who are in charge of our safety don't know what it's like to navigate as a vulnerable pedestrian/cyclist/etc. on the road, and just see us as obstacles that are slowing them down, I don't think we will see change. (And this includes the average driver, who I believe should have to log some hundred miles or so of cycling before being given a licence to drive near cyclists.) The mayor of Paris cycles to work and has pedestrianised huge parts of the city and built massive numbers of cycle lanes. This is probably not why she was elected but it is probably something we should more seriously consider when appointing people who will have power over our public spaces.
So likely less of an issue of it not being dangerous but rather hard to enforce.