Leon Neal
- SpaceX has been fined $3,600 over an accident at its Washington state facility.
- The incident resulted in the “near amputation" of a worker's foot, Reuters reported.
- The incident adds to growing safety concerns at SpaceX facilities.
Elon Musk's SpaceX was fined $3,600 after an employee nearly lost a limb at one of its facilities this month.
According to inspection records from Washington state's labor and industries department seen by Reuters, the incident at its Redmond facility occurred when a roll of material fell, crushing a staff member's foot. The inspectors described the resulting injury as a “near amputation."
Representatives for SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours. The aerospace company did not provide a comment to Reuters.
The incident comes amid wider concerns about safety at the company.
A Reuters investigation late last year found more than 600 previously unreported injuries at SpaceX facilities since 2014. The average injury rates at its three sites far outpaced those across the wider space industry.
Last month, the company was sued over negligence claims by the wife of a technician whose skull was fractured during a rocket malfunction in January 2022.
Francisco Cabada, who was performing checks on a SpaceX engine at the company's California site at the time, suffered a skull fracture and head trauma and remains in a coma, according to a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
SpaceX has not commented on claims of systematic safety failings at its facilities.
It is also facing accusations of discrimination against women. Executives at SpaceX have been accused of discriminating against female employees and joking about sexual harassment, according to complaints in filings reviewed by Bloomberg.