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Incident · Fatality

OSHA: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004)

On March 30, 2004, an employee at Getrag Corporation entered a barricaded robot work cell while the system was in operation. An industrial robot that moved assembled products between a conveyor and testing machines caught him by the head or neck between a fixture on the robotic arm and the testing machine, killing him.

Interlocked gates were present, but the worker may have entered by climbing the fence or crawling through product openings. OSHA accident investigation, inspection 307542589.

Occurred 2004-03-30 · Investigated by OSHA

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Track OSHA: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004)

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Sources (2)

  1. https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/accidentsearch.accident_detail?id=307542589
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20250115130208/https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/accidentsearch.accident_detail?id=202075727

Common questions

What happened in OSHA: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004)?
On March 30, 2004, an employee at Getrag Corporation entered a barricaded robot work cell while the system was in operation. An industrial robot that moved assembled products between a conveyor and testing machines caught him by the head or neck between a fixture on the robotic arm and the testing machine, killing him. Interlocked gates were present, but the worker may have entered by climbing the fence or crawling through product openings. OSHA accident investigation, inspection 307542589.
When did this incident occur?
The incident is recorded as occurring on March 30, 2004 on the DEPLOY registry. The date reflects the underlying real-world event, not the registry record's creation date.
Has anyone responded to OSHA: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004)?
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: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004)?
This incident is an active record on the DEPLOY registry; no retraction or correction has been issued.
Methodology: Verified · 2 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

2
unclassified
Unclassified source

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

Methodology surface for OSHA: Worker killed by industrial robot after entering barricaded work cell at Getrag (2004).

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Canonical ID 285867aa-c7ab-4bee-b459-253aef5fa177