On December 12, 1997, Employee #1 was using a Raymond dual-drive, stand-up, counterbalanced forklift to transport pallets from one compartment into another. After dropping off a pallet, he was backing up the forklift when he encountered an automated guided vehicle (AGV) that was traveling in reverse to the same point. The AGV was operated by a guided system built into the concrete floor. Employee #1 was standing with his back to the AGV, looking over his left shoulder, and had to choose between hitting the AGV or striking a stairway that led to the mezzanine storage area. He steered the forklift to avoid hitting the AGV and struck the stairway l-beam, fracturing his lower left leg. Emergency Services responded and transported Employee #1 to Memorial Medical Center. Four days later, while undergoing surgery, he slipped into a coma. He was removed from life support, at his family's request, on December 30, 1997.

An employee was repairing equipment when he was struck by an automated material-handling robot. He died of his injuries.

An employee was operating a die-casting machine used to manufacture automotive parts. At the beginning of the first shift, each die pair has a Julian date screw installed with the current date on it. Operators from each of three shifts would punch a dot on the date screw to have the stamp indicate on which shift the parts were manufactured. One day, a backup die-casting machine operator was punching a dot for the second shift on the two pairs of dies on his machine. No one was watching him. While he was doing this, an alarm on the machine sounded. This alarm is designed to announce when there is a problem, such as the machine's jamming or operating out of sequence. Nearby machine operators heard the alarm and responded. When they approached the machine, they saw the backup die-casting machine operator in the die area. They found that his head was severely crushed. The machine was on. The robot arm had been stopped after it had removed the part and moved out of the way. The automatic sprayer had been turned off, but the machine was left on and in automatic. The machine had not been locked out. Investigation revealed that, with the robot arm off and out of the way and with the sprayer shut off, the machine will continue to cycle if not turned off. The employer had a lockout program that was inadequate. It did require employees to lock out the die-casting machines during repair or adjustments in the die area. However, employee interviews revealed that it was routine for the die punching operation to be performed without the machine being locked out. In addition, two supervisors admitted that they did not enforce the requirement to lock out the machines. In fact, they had worked in the die areas themselves without locking out the machine. The machine runs automatically, wit