A key that defeated an interlock switch is at the center of a wrongful death suit over the April 7, 2025, killing of a Michigan autoworker who was pinned by a robotic arm while repairing equipment at a Stellantis engine plant.
Ronald Adams, a 63-year-old mechanic at the Dundee Engine Plant, suffered fatal crushing injuries on the job, court filings say. His widow, Shamenia Stewart-Adams, has taken the automaker to Wayne County Circuit Court on behalf of his estate.
A Bypassed Safety Mechanism
At the heart of the case is a question of why the machinery was live at all. The protective system meant to shield anyone servicing the washer had been “electronically bypassed,” according to the filing. With a key overriding the interlock, the robot could operate at full production speed instead of the slow manual setting that is supposed to be used whenever a person is working within its reach.
The estate argues that the override is what let the arm spring to life, trapping and crushing Adams. Nothing indicates Adams himself turned the key, the complaint states. The suit also faults the plant for inadequate machine guarding and for failing to have safe work procedures in place on the day he was killed — omissions the family says turned a routine repair into a fatal one.
Left Alone at the Machine
Adams had been servicing a large industrial chamber washer, a machine used to clean engine components, while a robotic arm shuttled parts in and out of it. Two colleagues assigned to the same job stepped away for a break, leaving him by himself with the equipment, the lawsuit says.
When one of them came back, Adams was trapped between the arm and a conveyor. In a statement, a worker recounted seeing him “hunched over,” his right arm resting on the conveyor and the robotic arm bearing down on his right shoulder.
Coworkers called for paramedics and brought in an on-site electrician to raise the arm off him. Three of them helped emergency crews shift Adams from the conveyor belt to a stretcher. He was rushed to a hospital and died there. A medical examiner attributed his death to crushing injuries and “traumatic asphyxia.”
Adams brought decades of hands-on experience to the job. A U.S. Air Force veteran who had previously worked for Northwest Airlines, he put in 20 years at Dundee, which builds engines for the company’s Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Ram lines. At the time of his death he was part of a crew retooling the plant ahead of production of a new four-cylinder engine.
Michigan’s workplace safety regulator, MIOSHA, launched a fatality investigation the same day Adams died. More than a year on, the case remained open, and no citation or fine had been handed down.
His was not the only death at the automaker’s plants. Over a two-year span there were three at Stellantis facilities. Antonio Gaston, 53, was caught on a conveyor and crushed by equipment at the Toledo Assembly Complex on August 21, 2024. James Brasher, 57, died on August 1, 2026, when he fell from a second-story loading bay at the company’s Center Line site, hitting his head on a dumpster roughly 25 feet down. Regulators cited a serious violation in Gaston’s death and levied a fine of about $16,000; the company challenged it and settled for roughly $11,000. Brasher’s death is still being investigated by the state.
Stellantis has declined to respond to the particular claims in the Adams suit. Speaking generally about worker safety, the company said it “regularly evaluate[s] and strengthen[s] our internal standards and protocols to protect employees across our operations,” and said that sharing best practices “helps reinforce our safety culture and supports consistent performance.” United Auto Workers Vice President Rich Boyer said the deaths “shouldn’t happen” and called for tougher health and safety procedures.
The family’s case asks the court to hold the automaker responsible, on the argument that the necessary protections simply were not there while Adams worked on the chamber washer.
