A technician was killed by a robot a German Volkswagen plant on Wednesday,
The 21-year-old, unidentified man was installing part of the robot, along with a co-worker, when the robot hit him in the chest, according to Financial Times. After the man was struck, he was pushed up against a metal plate. He died afterwards due to injuries he sustained in the incident.
The event is being investigation by prosecutors.
Robots are kept in safety cages at a majority of production plants. The victim was installing part of the robot inside the safety cage when he was struck, Financial Times reports. His co-worker was standing outside of the cage and did not come in contact with the robot.
A spokesperson for Volkswagen told Financial Times that robot "was not one of the new generation of lightweight collaborative robots that work side-by-side with workers on the production line and forgo safety cages."
The robot was being properly installed and did not suffer any kind of technical glitch, Volkswagen stated.
Coincidentally, the Financial Times reporter that broke the story, Sarah O'Connor, has a similar name to one of the main characters from the Terminator films, Sarah Connor. O'Connor's Twitter followers were quick to point it out to her, but the reporter pleaded everyone to remember that the story is quite serious.
Feeling really uncomfortable about this inadvertent Twitter thing I seem to have kicked off. Somebody died. Let's not forget.
— Sarah O'Connor (@sarahoconnor_) July 1, 2015
