A Tennessee company and its CEO are being sued by the family of a worker who was killed after the factory stayed open in devastating flooding conditions during Hurricane Helene, according to court papers.
The lawsuit, filed by the family of Impact Plastics employee Johnny Peterson, said that the factory denied requests by workers to leave and insisted they stay “to meet order deadlines” despite flash flood warnings and other businesses shutting their doors.
The suit called the deaths of six workers that occurred due to the Sept. 27 flood in Erwin “entirely preventable.”
The lawsuit alleges that after factory workers were trapped and feared for their lives, while senior management, including CEO Gerald O’Connor, “stealthily exited the building out of the back door.” Workers then assumed they could leave work, too, with the suit claiming that the company had no required safety plan.
During this time, Peterson continued to text his family members, messaging his daughter at around 11:45 a.m. that he “can’t get out.”
As the water rose, other Impact Plastic workers got into a pickup truck and waited to be rescued. Peterson got onto a semi-trailer off the company’s property as vehicles were submerged and moving, telephone poles fell, and the building’s walls began to cave in, according to the suit.
As water began to fill the back of the truck, workers began to be swept away and Peterson texted his daughter saying: “I love you allllll.”
The last text Peterson sent was in response to his dad asking if he was OK. He replied, “Not for Long.” He was then swept away and drowned, court documents show.
According to the suit, “11 workers from Impact Plastics were swept away in floodwaters and six are confirmed to have perished.”
Stephen Ross Johnson, the attorney of Gerald O’Connor, was not immediately available for comment.
O’Connor released a video earlier this month, starting out by saying that he and his family were receiving death threats.
“Following that day, I ordered immediate review of the events and timeline of what occurred that morning,” said O’Connor, reading from a paper. He said the preliminary review showed that employees were told to leave the plant at least 45 minutes before the “gigantic force of the flood” hit the industrial park. O’Connor then said that no one was told they would be fired if they left.
“To our knowledge, no one perished while on company property,” he said.
In a statement to Knox News, Zack Lawson, the family’s lawyer said, “Impact Plastics was aware of the flood risks, and while employees requested permission to leave, the company failed to act. We will hold them accountable.”
He also said that Peterson died a hero, trying to save others off the truck.
The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the state’s Bureau of Investigation are now investigating the company.
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