Intel has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a contract worker who was killed in 2017 by a manufacturing tool he was servicing at the chipmaker’s Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro.
The parties didn’t disclose terms of the settlement in filings last month in Multnomah County Circuit Court, and lawyers for the company and the family declined to comment. The family had sought nearly $16 million in damages.
Jay Elwell, 49, died on the afternoon of July 12, 2017. He worked for an Intel contractor, Raymond Handling Concepts Corp., and was performing routine maintenance on factory equipment at Intel’s Ronler Acres manufacturing campus in Hillsboro.
A state investigation into the incident found Elwell and a colleague encountered a problem with a roller in the machine, known as a Kardex Remstar VCR01. Elwell went inside the tool, which is 11 feel long and 9 feet high, to resolve the issue.
When his colleague sought to reposition the tool while Elwell was inside, the state inquiry found, its internal mechanisms crushed Elwell to death.
In a deposition associated with the suit, Elwell’s colleague indicated he was briefly conscious afterward and said “I’m going to die” twice before convulsing and expiring. It took Intel’s emergency responders 16 minutes to free Elwell from the machine. The medical examiner attributed his death to “compression asphyxia.”
The death appears to be the first and only recorded fatality in the history of Oregon’s semiconductor industry, one of the state’s biggest economic sectors.
Though computer chips are made in sterile environments, it’s a heavy industry that employs toxic chemicals and heavy equipment. Silicon Forest chipmakers have reported at least nine serious accidents in the past 30 years, including hazardous waste spills and exposure of workers to toxic substances. There is no record of prior chip industry deaths in Oregon, though.
Intel is Oregon’s largest corporate employer, with approximately 21,000 people working at its Washington County campuses.
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health division fined Raymond Handling $17,400 in 2018, concluding the contractor hadn’t properly trained workers about potential hazards and didn’t have adequate emergency procedures in place. The state also issued a “hazard letter” to Intel for failing to notify workers of safety procedures for working in confined spaces.
Oregon law shields businesses from lawsuits when their workers are injured or killed, provided they have workers’ compensation insurance, protecting Raymond Handling from litigation. But Intel was not shielded, since Elwell worked for a contractor.
In the litigation, Elwell’s heirs asserted that Intel hadn’t affixed safety notices to the Kardex machine, hadn’t taken steps to ensure Raymond Handling was operating properly and hadn’t taken corrective action when it found the contractor was out of compliance with Intel procedures.
In depositions filed in connection with the lawsuit, Intel managers assert they acted appropriately, notified contractors of safety hazards and provided training to contractors. The company placed the blame for Elwell’s death on Raymond Handling and said it fired the subcontractor after he died.
“Intel did terminate Raymond Handling when we determined how deficient their safety program was after the accident happened,” Intel safety manager Shannon Phillips testified in a deposition last year. “They were terminated after we did our investigation and determined it was not a tool malfunction. We understood they were not following policies and procedures.”
-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699
The Link LonkMay 17, 2021 at 08:52PM
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Intel settles lawsuit over 2017 factory death - OregonLive
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