The word ‘burn’ is about that last thing electric car maker Tesla Motors needs to see in a headline right now, following three well publicised accident related fires in its cars, but there’s been an industrial accident at its factory in California.
The San Jose Mercury News reported three Tesla Motors employees were injured when a low-pressure aluminium casting press failed on Wednesday afternoon at the company’s Fremont factory, the former NUMMI Toyota-GM joint venture plant.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
One employee was seriously hurt and two others suffered minor injuries when the machine failed, spilling hot metal on the workers, fire officials and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk told the paper. The three employees were taken to hospital with second-degree burns.
One was released Wednesday evening but the other two were in the burn ward and expected to remain there overnight, a hospital spokeswoman told the paper.
Musk visited the men shortly after 7 pm and said one he identified as “Kevin” would likely make a full recovery but the other had more serious injuries.
“In the case of Jesus, his hands were burned pretty badly so it’s not clear what the recovery is going to be,” he said. “We want to have that recovery as much as possible and we’ll do everything we can on that part.”
Musk said he went to the hospital to meet with the employees personally and “make sure they’re OK and getting the best possible care.”
The paper said incident at the factory was initially reported to be a fire at 11:55am. But a Fremont Fire Department spokesman confirmed that there was no fire or explosion in the plant and that the incident was being considered an industrial accident.
Peter Melton, a spokesman for the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said investigators from the department’s Fremont office would visit Tesla. Melton said the most seriously injured worker received chest and upper body burns.
