Insult To Injury: Tesla Workers Hurt In Fremont Factory

Image via Flickr/ Niall Kennedy

As if Tesla Motors has not received enough bad publicity in the last few weeks, there has been yet another incident involving the maker of Electric Vehicles. This time, the incident involves one of its factories in Fremont, California. According to reports there was a failure in one of the machines used to cast aluminum parts for the vehicles, and this caused injuries to three employees.

According to a statement from Tesla, “There was a failure in a low pressure aluminum casting press. Three employees were injured by hot metal from that press. Liz Harvis-Shean, the director of global communications at Tesla also said that those who were injured were receiving the “best possible care.” According to CEO Elon Musk, two of the workers suffered minor injuries from the incident, while the third was seriously hurt. When the press unexpectedly poured hot metal out, the workers did not have time to retreat to safety.

According to reports, one of the employees was released from the hospital on Wednesday evening, but the other two remain in the care of Valley Medical Center in San Jose.

Musk identified one of the men as “Kevin” and said that he believes a full recovery will take place. However, the second man still in the hospital is in much more serious condition.

In the case of Jesus, his hands were burned pretty badly so it’s not clear what the recovery is going to be. We want to have that recovery as much as possible and we’ll do everything we can on that part.”

According to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health spokesman, Peter Melton, investigators are checking out the cause of the incident at the Fremont location. Initially the incident was reported as a fire, but the Fremont Fire Department later confirmed that it was being treated as an industrial accident as there was no fire or explosion. However, the injuries from the incident were severe, as one man received serious burns to his chest and upper body.

Past Problems

Tesla has had a series of fires this year that has plagued its Model S vehicle with negative press and bad publicity. We recently reported that Tesla had suffered from three separate fire incidents involving the Model S within a six week time period.

One fire occurred in Seattle, Washington, while another took place in Mexico. The most recent fire incident was reported in Smyrna, Tennessee, where, ironically enough, Nissan manufactures its Leaf electric vehicle.

Tesla has suffered from the bad publicity, and its stock, which is traded under the Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) ticker, is currently down 2.24 percent to trade at $135.60 a $3.10 drop from its opening price.

Disclosure: Author represents that he has no position in any stocks mentioned in this article at the time this article was submitted.