Nissan maintenance technician killed by robot at Smyrna assembly plant

What happened

The accident happened at about 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 16, 2013, at Nissan’s vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna, according to local station WGNS. The worker was a 43-year-old maintenance technician with 21 years at the company.

Nissan did not release details of the cause at the time. OSHA’s summary of fatalities reported in fiscal year 2013, which covers both federal and state-plan cases, lists the event under Nissan North America Inc., Smyrna, and describes it as a worker struck and killed by an articulating robot while replacing robot gears.

The system involved

The only public description of the machine is OSHA’s one-line summary, which calls it an articulating robot, the jointed-arm type widely used for welding and material handling in car plants. The summary indicates the robot was being serviced at the time rather than running production, a situation that features in many of the 41 robot-related workplace deaths a NIOSH researcher identified in the United States between 1992 and 2017.

Investigation and response

An investigation was reported to be under way on the day of the death. Workplace safety in Tennessee is enforced by the state’s own occupational safety agency. The findings of that investigation, and whether any citations were issued for this death, were not verified for this entry.

What is not established

The make of the robot, how it came to move while being serviced and whether energy sources had been locked out are not described in the sources reviewed. The outcome of the state investigation was not verified.