Telsa Inc. was fined more than $110,000, its largest yet, by federal safety officials after a an employee suffered a high voltage electrical shock at a Massachusetts solar energy facility, SolarCity.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued nine serious safety citations against Telsa last month, but the total fines for the injuries was only about the same as the single fine for the latest incident, $110,863, according to the website Reveal News.
Another Telsa employee suffered electrical shocks and burn injuries at a solar energy project at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, leading to the earlier citations.
OSHA said Telsa did not provide workers with adequate training or protective gear. One citation noted that its online training did not include a proficiency requirement to ensure they were using equipment properly. One citation said workers did not know the correct distance to keep away from electrical equipment. Another pointed out that gloves issued to four workers were not rated to handle the voltages used, and it failed to conduct required safety inspections.
Telsa, in a statement, said the citations are inappropriate and it will appeal them. It said, in the statement, “It is worth noting that we never had another incident like this in the more than 250,000 service appointments at SolarCity and Telsa Energy.
The company has had safety violations at its car manufacturing plant in California, however.
