A worker was fatally crushed on November 7, 2023 by an industrial robot at a vegetable packaging plant in South Korea.

The victim, an employee in his 40s at a robotics company, was conducting a routine inspection of the machine’s sensors at the vegetable packaging factory when the fatal accident occurred.

The robot was used to lift boxes of vegetables onto a pallet. Reports indicate that the robot, which was handling boxes of peppers at the time, malfunctioned and failed to distinguish the inspector from the boxes. Consequently, the robot’s arm grabbed the man and pressed him against the conveyor belt, causing severe injuries to his face and chest.

The victim was immediately rushed to the hospital following the accident, but succumbed to his injuries. The name of the victim has not been released to the public pending family notification.

Police and local authorities are investigating the circumstances leading to the worker’s death. Initial findings suggest that human error may have been a significant factor in the accident. However, concerns about the safety of industrial robots and their operational protocols have been raised, given the severity of the incident.

Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the robot was defective or improperly designed, or if there were lapses in operational safety protocols.

In March of this year, an auto parts factory worker in Gunsan, South Korea was gravely hurt after a manufacturing robot compressed him during an inspection. The previous year, a worker was tragically killed by a robot positioned near a conveyor belt at a dairy plant in Pyeongtaek. 

The fatal accident on Tuesday involved one of two pick-and-place robots operating at the facility packaging bell peppers and other vegetables for export to several Asian countries, according to police information. These machines are prevalent in South Korea’s agricultural sector, which is dealing with a shrinking and aging labor force.