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Incident · Fatality

OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016)

On June 18, 2016, Regina Elsea, a 20-year-old temporary worker at Joon LLC (dba Ajin USA), an auto-parts supplier to Kia and Hyundai in Cusseta, Alabama, was fatally crushed when she and coworkers entered a robotic station to clear a sensor fault and a robot restarted abruptly, pinning her inside the cell. She died the next day.

OSHA's investigation cited Ajin USA and staffing agencies Alliance Total Solutions and Joynus Staffing for 27 violations, including 19 egregious instance-by-instance willful violations tied to lockout/tagout and machine-guarding failures, with proposed penalties of about $2.5 million. (U.S. DOL/OSHA news release, Dec. 14, 2016.)

Occurred 2016-06-18 · Investigated by OSHA

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Track OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016)

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Sources (4)

  1. https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/osha/osha20161214-0
  2. https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/Joon_Ajin_1156866.pdf
  3. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/auto-parts-manufacturing-company-sentenced-worker-death-case
  4. https://www.manufacturingdive.com/news/ajin-usa-joon-OSHA-hyundai-supplier-safety-penalty/644590/

Common questions

What happened in OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016)?
On June 18, 2016, Regina Elsea, a 20-year-old temporary worker at Joon LLC (dba Ajin USA), an auto-parts supplier to Kia and Hyundai in Cusseta, Alabama, was fatally crushed when she and coworkers entered a robotic station to clear a sensor fault and a robot restarted abruptly, pinning her inside the cell. She died the next day. OSHA's investigation cited Ajin USA and staffing agencies Alliance Total Solutions and Joynus Staffing for 27 violations, including 19 egregious instance-by-instance willful violations tied to lockout/tagout and machine-guarding failures, with proposed penalties of about $2.5 million. (U.S. DOL/OSHA news release, Dec. 14, 2016.)
When did this incident occur?
The incident is recorded as occurring on June 18, 2016 on the DEPLOY registry. The date reflects the underlying real-world event, not the registry record's creation date.
Has anyone responded to OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016)?
No responses to this incident are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Operators, manufacturers, or affected parties can submit responses to the editorial team; absence is not a guarantee no response was issued.
What is the current status of OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016)?
This incident is an active record on the DEPLOY registry; no retraction or correction has been issued.
Methodology: Verified · 4 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-22

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-22

Sources by quality tier

4
unclassified
Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for OSHA: Temporary worker Regina Elsea crushed to death by assembly-line robot at Ajin USA auto-parts plant (2016).

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Canonical ID 9e30282b-072c-47a4-bc76-fbbfab42a859