Worker Crushed by Robot at VW Plant

A contractor was killed allegedly while installing a robot at a Volkswagen transmission plant in Germany.

The worker earlier this week was installing machinery in Volkswagen’s Kassel factory when he was trapped by a robotic arm and crushed into a metal plate, according to early reports.

“He died later in hospital from his injuries and our thoughts are with his family,” Volkswagen said in a statement.

“We are of course carrying out a full investigation into the incident and cannot comment further at this time.”

The Kassel plant, which employs about 15,500 people, is the company’s primary transmission plant, and annually supplies the entire Volkswagen Group with about 4 million manual and automatic transmissions.

This article, "Robot Crushes Worker at VW Plant," originally appeared on EHS Today, a companion site of IndustryWeek and part of Penton's Manufacturing and Supply Chain Group.