"I Refuse to Be the First Fatality": Elon Musk's The Boring Company's Safety Record Reportedly Left Employees Fearing Fo

Source: Benziga

"I Refuse to Be the First Fatality": Elon Musk's The Boring Company's Safety Record Reportedly Left Employees Fearing For Their Lives

Caleb Naysmith
Mon, April 1, 2024 at 12:15 PM EDT·4 min read

Recent investigations into The Boring Company, a tunnel construction startup founded by Elon Musk, have raised significant concerns over worker safety at its project sites. A recent investigation by Fortune found a widespread lack of accountability, dangerous working conditions, and a series of injuries that surfaced, casting a shadow over the company’s ambitious mission to revolutionize transportation through underground tunneling.

In May, an alarming email from an employee at the Bastrop, Texas, site to the company's then–safety manager, Wayne Merideth, revealed the dire situation: “I feel that the company as a whole has been very fortunate these past few months that there hasn't been a fatality,” the employee wrote. This message was just one of many warnings that Merideth received during his tenure, indicating a consistent disregard for employee safety under the pressure to meet high expectations and tight deadlines.

Merideth’s attempts to address these safety concerns were reportedly undermined by senior management, leading to his eventual departure from the company. His experience is part of a broader narrative of safety issues at The Boring Company, which reported 36 injuries across its job sites to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within a six-month period in 2023.

The Boring Company’s pursuit of its goals has resulted in working conditions that have exposed employees to serious injuries or even death. An OSHA investigation last summer, initiated by an anonymous tip, found that employees at the Las Vegas project site were at risk of burns from accelerant chemicals, among other hazards.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/refuse-first-fatality-elon-musks-161507318.html