S5 · 07/04
1981 ·
Kawasaki Robotics · Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant, Akashi, Japan
| Company | Kawasaki Robotics |
| Category | machinery oem |
| Type | fatality |
| Date | 07/04 1981 |
| Time of day | not documented |
| Location | Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant, Akashi, Japan |
| Severity | S5 (fatality or catastrophic loss) |
| Scale | 1 fatality |
| Confidence | medium |
| Verification | Yes - adversarially checked against the cited source |
| Source | Wikipedia (secondary, cross-referenced with CDC MMWR robot fatality reporting) |
Maintenance worker Kenji Urada was killed after jumping a safety barrier to service a malfunctioning robot at a Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant in Akashi, Japan; the robot (built by Kawasaki under Unimation license) reactivated and pinned him against adjacent machinery. Widely cited as one of the first documented industrial-robot fatalities.
| Sev | Date | Company | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| S5 | 2015-07-07 | Nachi-Fujikoshi | Wanda Holbrook killed by robot at Ventra Ionia Mainstamping plant |
| S5 | 2015-07-07 | FANUC | Maintenance technician crushed to death by robot at Ventra Ionia auto-parts plant |