Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
The family of a Tennessee man who was killed in the massive floods that came with Hurricane Helene has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company that employed him, alleging that management refused to allow employees to leave even as conditions worsened.
Johnny Peterson was one of the Impact Plastics who died on September 27 in the East Tennessee town of Erwin. 11 people were swept away by flood waters, and only five of those people were rescued. Two are confirmed dead; four other factory employees remain missing.
Several of the surviving employees have said that managers would not release them from work until water had already flooded the parking lots and the plant had lost power.
Alex Little, an attorney who is representing Peterson’s family, released the following statement: “Based on information we’ve uncovered, including accounts from surviving employees, we believe this tragedy could have been avoided. 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.”
The lawsuit was filed Monday and lists both the company and its owner Gerald O’Connor as defendants. The suit alleges that the company had no emergency plan in place to evacuate employees, even though the factory was situated in a flood plain.
Additionally, the suit claims that, even after schools and other businesses closed, Impact Plastics told employees that they had to come to work because of “order deadlines.”
Included in the 28-page suit is a breakdown of Peterson’s final moments, including text messages telling his family that he did not think he would survive.
Peterson climbed on to the bed of a semi-trailer to try and escape the floods.
“Johnny knew he could not survive must longer as the water levels continued to swell and pummel the semi-trailer. He texted his daughter for the last time at 1:17 p.m. ‘I love you alllll.’ This was the last text Alexa Peterson received from her father,” the suit states.
It continues, “At 1:27 [Johnny’s father] asked his son ‘You ok,” to which his son responded ‘Not for Long.” This was the last text Johnny sent to anyone.”
Both the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the state workplace safety office have opened investigations into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Impact Plastics has continued to firmly state that employees were not forced to stay at work and were evacuated nearly an hour before the worst part of the flood hit. They say that weather conditions were constantly monitored and employees were sent home “when water began to cover the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power.”
2 Responses
Sitting in a flood plain beside the river, hills on both sides, umpteen inches of rain coming and he wouldn’t “let” them leave?
Guess jobs are scarce there, but I’da been NOT there.
Sounds like negligent homicide to me. The owner and management should face hard time for their callous disregard for their employees safety. They had to know they were in a flood zone and that mountain area floods are always fast developing. When the first employee made their concerns known, there should of been a rapid evacuation. Greed and stupidity does not excuse the needless deaths of these citizens. I hope the owner dies in poverty, (in God’s time frame) . He will be judged again at that time for his crimes against God’s laws. Meanwhile, we the people, need to see he and his managers, that ordered people to stay are prosecuted and sued to the greatest extent of the law possible. May those guilty see the faces of these former employees they callously caused to die in the flood in every moment of their would be rest time and see the faces of their families in grief every time they lay down their heads to sleep. They need to pray for forgiveness privately and publicly with all their hearts and make restitution as best they may the rest of their lives to the victims families and the community.