An accident at work has claimed the life of a long-term Subaru employee, and has meant that the car brand has stopped production at all factories in Japan.
Subaru has halted assembly lines at all three Japanese plants after a longtime employee was crushed to death at the brand's Yajima plant.
Automotive News writes that the 60-year-old man – who had worked for Subaru for 35 years – operated a remote-controlled crane to move 25-ton molds at the factory on February 13.
It was one of these molds that collapsed, falling on the 60-year-old man and causing his death.
After the death, Subaru halted production at the three factories. That meant a temporary halt to the Forester, Crosstrek, Outback and Impreza models that Subaru ships to and trades in Australia.
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Also at Subaru's main factory in the city of Gunma and at a factory where engines and gearboxes are manufactured, production came to a standstill.
To the Australian media CarExpert, the country's Subaru importer tells that it feels the deepest sympathy with the deceased's family, but that it has no further comment on the incident at this time.
By 2023, Subaru built 608,327 cars across its three plants in Japan. Not as many as in the record year 2016, when it amounted to 727,741 cars, but also not as few as in 2021. Here, Subaru built just 475,141 cars in one year.