An interlock built to keep the robot still while a worker was inside its reach had been switched off with a key — and on April 7, 2025, a 63-year-old mechanic at a Michigan engine plant paid for it with his life, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his widow.
Ronald Adams was servicing a large industrial chamber washer, the machine that cleans engine components, at the Dundee Engine Plant, a Stellantis operation. A robotic arm shuttled parts in and out of the washer as he worked. Court filings say he suffered catastrophic injuries and died at a hospital after being pinned by that arm.
Adams had spent 20 years at the Dundee factory, which builds engines for the automaker’s Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Ram nameplates. Before that, he served in the U.S. Air Force and worked for Northwest Airlines — a résumé that left him deeply familiar with heavy industrial equipment. On the day he was killed, he and a crew were retooling the plant to prepare it for a four-cylinder engine the site had never built before.
Left Alone at the Machine
Two of the coworkers assigned to the same job stepped away for a break, leaving Adams by himself at the equipment, the complaint states. When one of them came back, he found Adams trapped between the robotic arm and a conveyor.
In a written statement, a worker said the grandfather was “hunched over,” his right arm resting on the conveyor and the robotic arm bearing down on his right shoulder.
Coworkers called for paramedics and brought in an on-site electrician to raise the arm off him. Three of them then helped emergency crews lift Adams from the conveyor belt and onto a stretcher. A medical examiner attributed the death to devastating crushing injuries and “traumatic asphyxia.”
A Bypassed Safety Mechanism
Filed in Wayne County Circuit Court by Shamenia Stewart-Adams, the suit turns on a single question: why the robot was able to move at all while her husband worked on the washer. The answer, the estate says, is that a protective mechanism meant to shield anyone servicing the equipment had been “electronically bypassed.” A key defeated the interlock, letting the machine run at full production speed instead of the slow manual setting required when someone is within its range. Nothing indicates Adams turned that key himself, according to the filing.
The estate also argues the facility lacked adequate guarding and safe work procedures on the day of the accident, and that those gaps are what let the arm pin and crush a man in the middle of a routine repair. The case asks that Stellantis be held responsible for the death.
The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA), the state’s workplace safety agency, launched a fatality investigation the same day Adams died. More than a year on, that inquiry was unresolved, with no fine or citation on the books.
His was not an isolated case. Over a two-year stretch, three Stellantis employees died on the job. Antonio Gaston, 53, was caught on a conveyor and crushed by equipment at the Toledo Assembly Complex on August 21, 2024. James Brasher, 57, plunged from a loading bay on the second floor of the automaker’s Center Line facility on August 1, 2026, striking his head on a dumpster some 25 feet down. Regulators cited the company with a serious violation and about $16,000 in penalties over Gaston’s death; Stellantis fought the citation and settled at roughly $11,000. State investigators are still examining what happened to Brasher.
The automaker has not responded to the specific claims in the lawsuit. Addressing its safety record generally, Stellantis said it “regularly evaluate[s] and strengthen[s] our internal standards and protocols to protect employees across our operations,” and that trading best practices “helps reinforce our safety culture and supports consistent performance.” Rich Boyer, vice president of the United Auto Workers, said the deaths “shouldn’t happen” and called for tougher health and safety procedures.
