Robert Williams, aged 25, made history tragically by becoming the world’s first known individual to die at the hands of a robot. Employed at the Ford Motor Company casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, on January 25, 1979, Williams met his unfortunate end while operating a parts-retrieval system.
The machine, responsible for moving materials around the factory, appeared to be malfunctioning that day, operating at a slower pace than usual. In an attempt to address the issue, Williams climbed into a shelving unit on the third story, where he was unexpectedly struck from behind and fatally crushed by a mechanical arm, as detailed in legal records.
The robotic system failed to distinguish Williams as a human being, mistakenly identifying him as an object requiring immediate relocation. Shockingly, the machine continued its operations for half an hour while Williams remained motionless before his coworkers discovered the tragic incident.
In 1983, Williams’ family successfully sued Litton Industries, the manufacturer of the machine, citing inadequate safety measures surrounding the robotic arm’s powerful force. They were granted a $10 million compensation, marking the largest personal injury award in the state’s history at that time.
During the case, their legal representative cautioned against reverting to outdated notions from the Industrial Revolution that view people as disposable. He elaborated on how the robot’s hydraulic arm completely crushed Williams, resulting in his instantaneous death before the machine resumed its tasks.
Shortly after this incident, a second fatality involving a robot occurred in Japan, where a 37-year-old worker named Kenji Urada was killed by a malfunctioning mechanical arm at the Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant in Akashi. Urada’s tragic demise, detailed in Gabriel Hallevy’s book “When Robots Kill: Artificial Intelligence Under Criminal Law,” occurred when the robot mistakenly perceived him as a threat and pushed him into a nearby machine.
The robot’s powerful hydraulic arm caused fatal injuries to Urada, ending his life instantly before returning to its regular operations.
