In an exclusive report published by Reuters SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, fined $3,600 by US Worker Safety Officials for an incident in Washington State where a worker suffered a "Near Amputation" due to a falling roll of material crushing their foot.
Late last year Reuters conducted an investigation where they found that the company had disregarded worker safety and standard practices. Looking into interviews and Government records, the outlet had documented 600 unreported injuries of SpaceX workers since 2014, a decade ago.
Just To Name A Few Of The Incidents
SpaceX has not replied to inquiries about the injuries or incidents one of which led to the death of one worker and the critical injury of another who is currently in a coma after their skull was fractured during the malfunction of a rocket engine in 2022. The worker's wife has filed a negligence lawsuit as a result. The officials from the Washington State Department Of Labor and Industries at the company's Redmond, Washington site in December last year that was prompted by worker complaints according to state inspection records obtained by the outlet under an open record request. However, an unnamed agency spokesperson said SpaceX can still appeal the decision.
Inspectors had concluded that the site did not have the following a "thorough safety program", sufficient communication of work rules, and a system to "Correct violations" according to records. The managers at SpaceX have said the incident regarding the "near amputation" was a one-time incident and that the problem was resolved. However, inspectors found that employees were not required to wear steel-toe shoes even though the rolls of materials used had gotten significantly heavier increasing from 80 pounds to 300 pounds (36kg to 136kg) each.
Speaking with inspectors an unnamed injured worker told them that "Safety can get overlooked" because of the company's "Goal to make as much as we can in a short amount of time" The injured worker also stated that the machines were materials were loaded "Had been deliberately set up incorrectly for the purpose of increasing the production rate during the material loading phase" The worker also told them that the issue was not addressed and that the safety officials at the company do not "have the reading comprehension nor the overall competency to implement a safety plan at the Redmond site"
Reuter's report from last year found that worker safety agencies had found that in the last decade, there has been a total worth of $50,836 in violations. NASA, which has paid SpaceX over $11.8 billion as a private space contractor did not reply to inquiries. They haven't spoken about the company's safety record and have only said that the company has the option of enforcing contract provisions that will require SpaceX to "have a robust and effective safety program and culture."
This is following another report from HNGN that had covered that documents have shown that Musk's new brain implant product had violated the United States regulations regarding transport. In addition, platform X formally known as Twitter experienced a 71% depreciation following Musk's purchase of the platform.
