It looks like another one of Elon Musk’s companies is in hot water. Worker safety officials have fined SpaceX $3,600 after an accident at its Redmond, Washington site led to a “near amputation.” Not only is that fine disturbingly low, but it also seems that the company has a history of safety violations.
Last December, after several complaints by employees, the Department of Labor and Industries discovered safety violations at SpaceX’s Washington facility. The report states the site lacked a “thorough safety program,” work rules were poorly communicated, and didn’t have a proper system to “correct violations.” The inspectors reported that the “near amputation,” was caused by a roll of material that fell, crushing a worker’s foot.
SpaceX managers assured the state that it was a one-time accident and the that issue had been corrected. Part of the issue is that employees at the facility were not required to wear steel-toe shoes. Which is a pretty standard safety protocol when lugging around rolls of material that weigh 80 lbs. Apparently, these regulations were still not put in place after the size of those rolls jumped to 300 lbs each. The agency considered this to be a serious violation given the risk of injury.
A worker who wishes to remain anonymous told inspectors that “safety can get overlooked” because the “goal is to make as much as we can in a short amount of time.” The injured worker says that the machine where the rolls are loaded “had been deliberately set up incorrectly for the purpose of increasing the production rate during the material loading phase.”
The anonymous employee backed this up and said the issue still had not been remedied. Saying safety officials at the company do not “have the reading comprehension nor the overall competency to implement a safety plan at the Redmond site.” Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be an issue at just one facility.
An investigation by Reuters last year revealed that SpaceX has a history of disregarding worker safety regulations, nationwide. By compiling interviews and government records the outlet uncovered 600 previously unreported injuries of SpaceX workers since 2014. At least one of these injuries resulted in the death of an employee. Another worker is still in a coma after his skull was fractured during a rocket engine malfunction in 2022. Their spouse filed a negligence lawsuit against the company last month.
As of last year, Space X has been fined a total of $50,836 for various violations over the last decade. Keep in mind, fines are capped by law so they often don’t serve as a deterrent for companies to fix violations. Seriously, what is $3,600 for a nearly amputated foot to a billion-dollar company?
At this time, SpaceX has not commented on the pending lawsuit or the current safety violations. We’ll keep you posted on updates about this situation as they develop.
