A father was electrocuted and killed by faulty equipment at Tesla's Giga factory just outside Austin, a bombshell lawsuit claims.
The complaint alleges that Victor Gomez Sr, 46, was killed on August 1 while 'tasked with inspecting electrical panels' — including one that attorneys for his family allege had been improperly 'energized.'
Contact with 'a panel which was already energized' left the electrician 'immediately electrocuted' and 'unconscious,' the attorneys wrote in their filing.
The father-of-seven was pronounced dead on arrival atDell Seton Medical Centerat The University of Texasin Austin on the same day,soon after the tragic incident.
While not the first worker death at the facility, Gomez's electrocution comes after DailyMail.com revealed how a Tesla engineerwas attacked by a robot during a brutal and bloody malfunction at the Giga Texas factoryin a separate safety failureonsite.
In under 48 hours, that fatal incident was poised to become a federal issue with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirming that it intended to open an investigation into the causes of journeyman electrician Victor Gomez Sr.'s death (pictured)
Due, in part, to Giga Texas's sprawling size - over 10 million square-feet of floor space or nearly 100 football fields in total area - the company decided to put portions of the factory into operation while the rest was still being built. Some argue this policy has increased injuries
'Gomez was tasked with inspecting electrical panels before they were energized on the day of this tragic incident,' according to the filing,filed in Travis County District Court on Tuesday.
Lawyers for Gomez's family also called for the court to compel Tesla to 'preserve all internal and external surveillance' from the date of the fatal accident.
The Gomez family's attorneys noted in their complaint that they had 'retained an electrical engineering consulting expert and [...] attempted to contact counsel for Defendants [i.e. Tesla and their contractors], through emails and phone calls, to inspect the subject property before any evidence is repaired or altered in any way.'
'Defendants are likely to alter, salvage, sell, or destroy relevant evidence,' the family's attorneys said in their plea for a restraining order against Tesla and its contractors.
First responders told local ABC affiliate KVUE differing accounts of the August 1 incident which they had been dispatched to help address.
Austin-Travis County EMS officials reported that they had been called onsite to provide emergency medical assistance to an adult in cardiac arrest.
Travis County Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, told local news that they arrived in response to callsabout a 'deceased person.'
Nevertheless, in under 48 hours, this fatal incident was already poised to become a federal issue with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) confirming that it intended to open an investigation into the causes of Gomez's death.
OSHA said it would not release further details until its investigation was concluded.
In 2022, the nonprofit Workers Defense Project filed its own OSHA complaint on behalf of workers at Tesla's sprawling Giga Texas, alleging that the company's contractors and subcontractors gave some hires false safety certificates.
'Workers report that when they needed training, they were simply sent PDF files or images of certificates through text or WhatsApp in a matter of days,' attorney Hannah Alexander told local NBC affiliate KXANat the time.
Drone videos that emerged this April (above) show full fleets of unfinished Cybertruck's backed up over parts concerns. Longtime whistleblower Cristina Balan told DailyMail.com that Tesla engineers, as she once was, may be struggling to get leadership to take safety seriously
Gomez, a father of seven, was electrocuted and killed by faulty equipment at Tesla 's Giga factory just outside Austin, according to the bombshell lawsuit (above)
'Gomez was tasked with inspecting electrical panels before they were energized on the day of this tragic incident,' according to the filing (above). Lawyers for Gomez's family asked the court to compel Tesla to 'preserve all internal and external surveillance' regarding the fatality
'There's no conceivable way workers could have even taken the training required.'
In fact, Gomez's tragic death only adds yet another grim data point to the larger trend told in Tesla's own accounts of on-site injuries,self-reported as mandated by government regulators: Tesla's Giga Texas plant outpaces the rest of the auto industry both in total accidents and accidents serious enough to require time off.
A ratio of nearly one out of every 21 workers at Tesla's Giga Texas factory was injured on the job in 2022, according to a review by The Information, compared to an industry median rate of one in every30 workers.
Two of Tesla's contractors who have worked on the company's Texas factory are also named as defendants in the complaint,Colorado River Project, LLC and Belcan Services Group, LTD.
DailyMail.com has reached out for comment to Tesla, whichdissolved its US media relations team in October 2020.
This article will be amended if the company responds.
One former OSHA inspectorRichard Gleason, who has also lectured on issues of occupational safety at the University of Washington, said that the regulatory agency would likely look at Tesla managers as they hunted for culpability in the death.
'It's not about workers,' Gleason said. 'It's about who in management had the authority, the power, to control — to have ensured that it was adequately de-energized prior to working on it.'
If you have details about this incident, or similar safety issues, please get in touch with the author at matthew.phelan@mailonline.com.
