After worker killed by robotic arm, auto-parts company must pay $1.5 million, feds say

In 2016, a 20-year-old worker entered an area with several robots and other machinery and was fatally struck by a robotic arm. Now the auto-parts company where she worked will pay $1.5 million in fines and restitution, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

Joon LLC/Ajin USA pleaded guilty to a charge related to the 2016 death of Regina Elsea, the Department of Justice said in a news release.

Elsea worked at Ajin’s facility in Cusseta, Alabama, when she and other employees went inside a work area to clear a sensor, according to a 2016 article in Safety News Alert.

“On June 18, 2016, she entered an enclosure — called a “cell” — containing several robots and other pieces of machinery,” the DOJ news release said. “While she was inside the cell, troubleshooting a sensor fault, one of the machines started up and Elsea was struck by a robotic arm. She died of her injuries.”

The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires all employers to turn off machines during maintenance and servicing in a process called “lockout/tagout,” according to the Department of Justice.

Officials said Ajin did not follow or enforce the procedure for at least two years. Supervisors also did not follow the “lockout/tagout” procedure, the news release said.

“In the 15 minutes prior to Elsea’s fatal injury — in the presence of their supervisors — workers entered cells to troubleshoot machinery without following lockout/tagout no less than five times, and the supervisors did not take any action to stop or reprimand them,” the Department of Justice said. “In two other instances, the supervisors themselves entered a cell without following lockout/tagout.”

After Ajin pleaded guilty to “willful violation of the OSH Act standard requiring the use of lockout/tagout procedures,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Michael Doyle ordered the company to pay the maximum fine of $500,000 and $1 million in restitution to Elsea’s estate.

The company will also have a three-year probation period where it “must comply with a safety compliance plan, overseen by a third-party auditor.”

“Regina’s tragic death was preventable,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan D. Brightbill said in the news release. “OSH Act standards exist to protect American workers, but employers must actually implement them. When safety policies exist only on paper, tragedies like this occur.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 7:46 PM with the headline "After worker killed by robotic arm, auto-parts company must pay $1.5 million, feds say."