Fatal accident at a Korean factory. A robot crushed an employee because he mistook him for a box of peppers

A 40-year-old employee of a South Korean factory died in an accident involving a robot responsible for moving products – reports a local station. The device’s sensors mistook it for one of the boxes. The man was caught and crushed by the machine’s arm.

Fatal accident at a South Korean factory. The man was crushed by the robot

The fatal accident occurred on Tuesday (November 7) in South Korea’s South Gyeongsang province. The incident took place in the sorting room of a food factory. The employee was servicing a machine responsible for automatically moving boxes of peppers to workstations. The device has been showing problems with sensors for a long time.

During the work, the machine’s sensors mistook the man for one of the transported boxes. The worker was grabbed by the robot’s arm and crushed. Witnesses to the incident immediately notified the emergency services. The man with a dented face and chest was treated by doctors. Despite the intervention, the factory worker died in hospital as a result of his injuries.

The dark side of new technologies. Similar accidents have already occurred in Korea this year

Journalists report that the police are working to determine the circumstances of the accident and whether there was negligence on the part of the employee or his superiors. The latest reports from officers cited by indicate that service work on the robot has been ongoing since last month. The tragic incident allegedly occurred when the employee was testing the machine after repair.

South Korea is one of the countries that uses the most robots in the production process. According to data quoted by “Chosun Ilbo”, there is one machine of this type for every 10 employees in the country. At the same time, the country still faces a high number of accidents in factories. Local journalists indicate that there have been at least three incidents this year in which a robot arm led to the death of an employee.