Elon Musk’s The Boring Company is reportedly facing some security breaches. ROBYN BECK
Some workers at The Boring Company suffered injuries, including chemical burns, Bloomberg reported.
Some employees spent their entire 12-hour shifts in the tunnels, including lunch breaks, the publication said.
OSHA fined Boring $112,504 last year for eight “serious” violations, but the company challenged the fine.
A current one Message According to Bloomberg, some workers at The Boring Company suffered chemical burns and near misses while building the tunnel system in Las Vegas.
They also had to work 12-hour shifts (including lunch) in the tunnels. It could reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 37.7 degrees Celsius, according to the report.
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Mud contaminated with chemicals burned workers’ skin
The tunnels in Las Vegas are a 1.7 mile (2.74 kilometers) long loop. They connect the Las Vegas Conventions Center and was released to the public in 2021. But Elon Musk’s tunneling company has been working to expand it to connect it to Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip, a nearby airport and Allegiant Stadium.
According to the report, some workers said they had to wade through about two square feet of mud during the expansion. The mud contained chemicals that can cause burns. Some employees suffered scars, Bloomberg reported, citing an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation.
One worker described the feeling of the chemicals on his skin as similar to “fire,” Bloomberg reported.
These are not the first incidents at Elon Musk’s The Boring Company
There were also reportedly some near misses at the site. An intern at The Boring Company was “nearly crushed” last summer when a container containing two tons of concrete broke. This was reported by Bloomberg, citing an OSHA report. On another occasion, the brakes on a forklift failed. A worker might have ended up under the machine if he had been wearing his seat belt, the publication describes, citing another OSHA report.
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Bloomberg reported that OSHA fined The Boring Company $112,504 last fall. She found eight “serious” violations. However, the company pushed back against OSHA’s claims in November. It said the organization “failed to demonstrate that the alleged violations occurred,” the publication explains.
A spokesperson for The Boring Company did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider or Bloomberg.
Workers have to keep up with Musk’s “insane sense of urgency.”
Musk founded the tunneling company in 2016 as a solution to congested highways. The company has a research and development tunnel in Hawthorne, California, but its only active commercial tunnel is the Las Vegas site. The Las Vegas Tunnel is used to transport people in Teslas from the Las Vegas Convention Center to other nearby attractions.
It’s not the first time one of Musk’s companies has been linked to potential safety concerns for workers. Last year, a Reuters investigation found that SpaceX employees worked more than 80 hours a week. They had a high injury rate to keep up with Musk’s “insane sense of urgency.”
The billionaire is known for running his companies with high intensity, sometimes calling for work sprints and even sleeping on the factory floor at Tesla.
This text was translated from English by Muriel Dittmar. You can find the original here.
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