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RobotRisk / Nachi-Fujikoshi / 2015-07-07

Wanda Holbrook killed by robot at Ventra Ionia Mainstamping plant

S5 · 07/07
2015 · ~14:20 · Nachi-Fujikoshi

Record

CompanyNachi-Fujikoshi
Categorymachinery oem
Typefatality
Date07/07
2015
Time of day~14:20
Locationno physical site (recall / fleet-wide / aggregate record)
SeverityS5 (fatality or catastrophic loss)
Scale1 fatality
Confidencemedium
VerificationCited source on file; not independently re-verified
SourceManufacturing.net

What happened

A maintenance technician, Wanda Holbrook, was fatally struck/crushed by an industrial robot arm at the Ventra Ionia Mainstamping plant in Michigan. A wrongful-death lawsuit named Nachi Robotic Systems as one of the manufacturers of the robot involved (along with Fanuc America and Lincoln Electric), alleging the robot's safety systems failed and that OSHA/MIOSHA safety requirements were not met.

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Comparable fatality events in machinery oem

SevDateCompanyEvent
S52015-07-07FANUCMaintenance technician crushed to death by robot at Ventra Ionia auto-parts plant
S51981-07-04Kawasaki RoboticsKenji Urada killed by Kawasaki-built robot at Akashi plant (landmark robot fatality)

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