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El Reg reports
The family of a repair technician killed in an auto parts factory accident is suing five robotics companies they say are responsible.
In a suit [PDF] filed to the Western Michigan US District Court this week, the family of Wanda Holbrook claims that the companies that built, installed, and maintained the robotics at a trailer hitch assembly plant should be held liable for her fatal accident at the plant in 2015.
According to the lawsuit, Holbrook, a journeyman technician, was performing routine maintenance on one of the robots on the trailer hitch assembly line when the unit unexpectedly activated and attempted to load a part into the unit being repaired, crushing Holbrook's head.
Now Holbrook's estate is suing the three companies that built the robots (Fanuc America, Nachi Robotic, and Lincoln Electric) for failing to design adequate safeguards and protections into the robots. They're also suing two other companies that installed and maintained the unit (Flex-N-Gate, Prodomax) for failing to prevent an accident they say would have been avoided had safety been a higher priority.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:27AM (5 children)
For a large company, $7,000 is pocket change, and easily just a "cost of doing business". I don't know why the government even bothers with fines so small. They should just publicly announce "we're not going to bother investigating accidents like this because there's just no point when the fines we levy aren't any kind of deterrent."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:49AM
They're basically saying:
1) yeah you're technically at fault, but
2) we're on your side on this, and
3) fuck the other parties.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:45AM
Won't anyone think of the small businesses and job creators? Last thing the American people want is to be crushed under the dead weight of government dropping regulations on their heads.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Ramze on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:46AM (1 child)
That's just the basic regulatory fine they get for not using adequate safety measures. They might have gotten the same fine if they had been reported, yet failed to upgrade the equipment in a timely manner regardless of whether or not anyone was injured or killed. It's an OSHA fine -- like you'd get for not ensuring people were wearing their hearing protection or hard hats in certain areas, etc.
The reason few people file lawsuits in cases like this in Michigan is partly because the laws make it difficult to win because one must prove the company intended to harm the employee, but that's mostly because companies have agreed to set aside huge amounts of money to pay out benefits to the families of the injured or deceased. (Companies lobbied to make it difficult to win lawsuits against them, but agreed to set aside fat payouts for injured/killed workers in exchange)
So, they're not just paying out $7K and going about their business. They're likely paying out a pretty penny to the spouse plus benefits for decades.
Another article states her employer paid all of her funeral costs -- including flying in family members to Michigan from Florida and Alaska. They also extended her medical benefits to her family. She was a union worker at that employer for at least 12 years in her position & the union workers were also donating to her family. I wouldn't be surprised if the company pays out half a million to a million for her family over the next decade on top of what they're getting now. Her spouse is quoted as saying that her employer is taking excellent care of their family saying they'd been "really, really good" to him.
Also, Michigan's OSHA doesn't play around with the fines... they recently fined another business over half a million for a workplace death. It just depends on the severity of the infraction. Most infractions are small and are fines of only a 2 to 8 thousand dollars.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 14 2017, @06:09PM
Exactly.
It's the employer's responsibility to ensure their employees follow the Lock-Out-Tag-Out policy (which makes it impossible for equipment to activate while work is happening).
However, it takes an employee to ignore that policy for an incident like this to happen.
(Score: 1) by Sourcery42 on Tuesday March 14 2017, @03:40PM
The real power OSHA has isn't in fines. It is the fact that they can shut down your operation if they believe truly willful disregard for employees is taking place. OSHA, MSHA and the like can shut down a plant, mine, factory, etc. until they are convinced things are under control and managed to their satisfaction. Piss them off bad enough and you might end up with one or two permanently embedded OSHA employees at your site just to keep an eye on you. However, the sad fact is usually you don't draw that much attention until one or more people have been maimed or killed.