OSHA probing fatality at Rivian warehouse

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has opened an probe into the decease of a idiosyncratic astatine a Rivian warehouse successful Illinois this week, the national bureau told TechCrunch connected Friday. The bureau said the probe could instrumentality up to six months.

The man, identified by section authorities arsenic 61-year-old Kevin Lancaster, reportedly died from “blunt traumatic compressional injuries” aft getting pinned betwixt a tractor trailer and a loading dock astatine the facility, which is located conscionable a fewer miles from Rivian’s factory.

Lancaster was reportedly trapped successful that spot for astir 20 minutes connected Thursday earlier firefighters were capable to get to him, according to 1 section quality report. Emergency crews responded to a telephone astatine 1:40 p.m. section time, and Lancaster was pronounced dormant astatine a section aesculapian halfway astatine 2:33 p.m. section time.

It’s not instantly wide if Lancaster worked for Rivian oregon for different company. Rivian did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. TechCrunch volition update the nonfiction if the institution responds.

The information of Rivian’s mill successful Normal, Illinois became a root of scrutiny successful 2024 aft a Bloomberg News report elaborate 16 “serious” violations levied connected the institution crossed that twelvemonth and the 1 prior.

Automotive factories are notoriously dangerous, though, and Rivian has received conscionable 1 usurpation astatine the Illinois manufacturing works since that study was published. OSHA adjacent told Bloomberg astatine the clip that Rivian “has improved their information and wellness squad and are precise cooperative with the OSHA process.”

Rivian assembles its flagship R1 pickup truck, R1 SUV, and commercialized electrical van, known arsenic the EDV, astatine its 4.3 cardinal square-foot mill successful Normal. The institution is expanding the abstraction by different 1.1 cardinal quadrate feet to marque country for its adjacent EV, the R2. Once complete, the mill volition person capableness to assemble 215,000 vehicles.

The Normal Police Department and the McLean County Coroner are inactive investigating Thursday’s death, according to the section quality report.