The wife of a SpaceX worker whose skull was fractured after rocket engine malfunction sues for negligence, report says

• The wife of an injured SpaceX employee is suing the company for negligence, Reuters reported.
• The employee suffered a skull fracture and was hospitalized in a coma for months.

The wife of a SpaceX technician whose skull was fractured during a rocket malfunction in January 2022 is suing Elon Musk's company for negligence.

Francisco Cabada suffered a skull fracture and head trauma and was hospitalized in a coma after the incident, according to an accident investigation summary from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

The SpaceX integration technician was performing checks on a Raptor V2 engine at the company's Hawthorne, California site on January 18, 2022, when the incident occurred, Business Insider previously reported.

Ydy Cabada filed the lawsuit in a state court in Los Angeles, California, last week on behalf of her husband, Reuters reported. The father of three remains in a coma, the news agency reported.

Representatives for SpaceX and Ydy Cabada's lawyer, Michael Rand, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI, made outside normal working hours.

SpaceX has faced accusations of systematic safety failings at its facilities.

An investigation by Reuters published late last year found that SpaceX has had at least 600 worker injuries since 2014.

The report found that SpaceX's average injury rates at three of its facilities, including Hawthrone, far outpaced rates across the wider space industry. The average injury rate for SpaceX's California site was 1.8, compared to an industry average of 0.8 injuries per 100 workers in 2022.

SpaceX workers told Reuters that Musk had even discouraged employees from wearing yellow-colored safety clothes because he didn't like bright colors.