A worker at Ventra Ionia Main was trapped by robotic machinery and pronounced dead at the scene in Ionia, Michigan.
- Date of incident
- 2015-07-07
- Location
- Ionia, Michigan, USA
- Sources
- 8
Established by press reporting. No regulator or court document is linked to this case yet.
How the event developed
- 2015-07-09Report
A 57-year-old maintenance employee, a person, was trapped in a robotic machine at the a person automotive stamping facility in Ionia, Michigan, and died at the scene.
cbsnews.com - 2017-03-14Lawsuit
a person, a technician at Ventra Ionia in Michigan, was killed in July 2015 when a robot entered the section she was working in and crushed her head between a hitch assembly it was attempting to place.
nydailynews.com
Every claim above traces to one of these
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- freep.comA worker at Ventra Ionia Main was trapped by robotic machinery and pronounced dead at the scene in Ionia, Michigan.2015-07-08copy 2026-10-28tier 2
- cbsnews.comA 57-year-old maintenance employee, Wanda J. Holbrook, was trapped in a robotic machine at the Ventra Ionia Main automotive stamping facility in Ionia, Michigan, and died at the scene.2015-07-09copy 2026-10-14tier 1
- nydailynews.comWanda Holbrook, a technician at Ventra Ionia in Michigan, was killed in July 2015 when a robot entered the section she was working in and crushed her head between a hitch assembly it was attempting to place.2017-03-14copy 2026-10-13tier 2
- telegraph.co.ukWanda Holbrook, a maintenance technician at the Ventra Ionia Mains auto-parts plant in Michigan, was crushed to death by a robot that entered the section she was working in and attempted to load a hitch assembly into an already-loaded fixture, leading her widower to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Lincoln Electric, Flex-N-Gate, Prodomax, FANUC, and Nachi.2017-03-14copy 2026-11-01tier 2
- independent.co.ukWanda Holbrook, a maintenance technician at the Ventra Ionia Mains plant in Michigan, was killed in July 2015 when a robot from an adjacent section unexpectedly entered her work area and crushed her skull with a hitch assembly.2017-03-15copy 2026-10-12tier 2
- techrepublic.comA robot at Ventra Ionia's stamping and molding facility in Ionia, Michigan entered an unauthorized work area and crushed maintenance technician Wanda Holbrook's head between hitch assemblies, killing her.2017-03-15copy 2026-10-13tier 2
- 11alive.comLawsuit filed alleging a defective robot caused the death of a Michigan woman.2017-03-15no copytier 2
- wcnc.comLawsuit alleges a defective robot killed a Michigan woman2017-03-16no copytier 2
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