U.S. labor safety officials this month fined Elon Musk’s SpaceX company $3,600 after an accident at its site in Washington state left him with “near amputation,” according to inspection records reviewed by Reuters. It is said that he did.
a Reuters survey Late last year, Musk’s rocket company was found to have ignored worker safety regulations and standard practices at its facilities across the country. The news organization has documented at least 600 previously unreported injuries to SpaceX employees since 2014 through interviews and government records.
SpaceX did not respond to Reuters’ questions about any of the incidents, including the death of one worker and the injury to another worker who suffered a fractured skull and remains in a coma after a 2022 rocket engine failure. . The company also did not respond to a request for comment on the new safety fines.
State inspection records obtained by Reuters under an open records request show that inspectors from the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries discovered new safety violations at the company’s Redmond, Washington, plant during a December visit prompted by employee complaints. discovered. An agency spokeswoman said SpaceX could still appeal the decision.
Inspectors concluded the site lacked a “thorough safety program,” adequate communication of work regulations and a system to “correct violations,” according to records. What inspectors described as a “near amputation” occurred after a roll of material fell and crushed a worker’s foot.
SpaceX managers told state inspectors that this was a one-time incident and the issue has been resolved.
But inspectors found that employees were not required to wear steel-toed shoes, even though the rolls of material that had to be loaded into the machines became heavier, increasing from about 80 pounds to 300 pounds each. discovered.
One employee at the site told inspectors that because the company’s goal is to “produce as much as possible in a short period of time,” “safety can be overlooked,” according to records. It is said that The injured worker said the machine the rolls were being loaded into had been “deliberately set up incorrectly in order to increase production rates during the material loading stage.”
The employee, who was not identified in the report, told inspectors that the issue had not been addressed and that the company’s safety personnel “do not have the literacy or overall ability to implement a safety plan at the Redmond facility.” I don’t have it.”
In another incident reported within 24 hours, an unidentified Redmond employee was hospitalized with a broken ankle after jumping off a pier during a fire alarm, something inspectors said the company could not have foreseen. said. As a result, SpaceX was not fined.
A Reuters report last year revealed that labor safety authorities had fined the billionaire rocket company a total of $50,836 for various violations over the past decade.
SpaceX’s history of injuries and regulatory conflicts highlights the limits of worker safety regulations. U.S. worker safety experts say the cap on fines is set by law and provides little deterrence for large companies. Federal and state regulators also say they are suffering from a chronic shortage of inspectors.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which pays SpaceX more than $11.8 billion as a private space contractor, did not respond to questions for this story. The space agency has repeatedly declined to comment on the company’s safety record, saying only that it has the option of enforcing contract provisions that require SpaceX to have a “robust and effective safety program and culture.”
Last month, the wife of an employee who suffered a fractured skull and is in a coma filed a negligence lawsuit against the company. NASA and SpaceX have not commented on the complaint.
