OSHA investigators says Tennessee company gave employees enough time to flee hurricane flooding. The workers disagree
Investigators in Tennessee say the management of plastics company gavve employees enough time to leave its facility before flooding from Hurricane Helene swept away workers and led to the deaths of six people.
'Investigators with Tennessee OSHA worked closely with law enforcement and conducted witness interviews, reviewed surveillance footage, and spent time at the Impact Plastics site,' Chris Cannon, the chief communications officer for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, told The Independent.
'After considering the evidence, TOSHA determined that company management exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees and providing them sufficient time to leave the facility safely,' he said. 'Because work operations had stopped and employees had left the building, TOSHA has concluded the tragic deaths of the Impact Plastics employees were not work-related and therefore do not fall within its jurisdiction.'
Victims of the flooding blasted the report's findings and timeline, saying that eye witnesses would confirm it had been too late for employees to leave before the floodwaters struck.
Flooding hit Tennessee and the Carolinas as Helene bore down on the mountainous regions of the Southeast. Many communities experienced historic flooding and pictures of the damage dominated the news. Impact Plastics became the focus of coverage after five employees and one contractor were killed in the storm.
In a statement provided to The Independent, attorneys for and Impact Plastics, Inc., and its founder and Gerald O'Connor said that it welcomed the results of the investigation.
'Critically, and contrary to what was reported by some in the media, Tennessee OSHA 'found no evidence that employees were threatened with termination or forced to work beyond a safe evacuation point,'' they wrote.
'Impact Plastics and Gerald O'Connor continue to concentrate on seeing to the needs of members of the Impact Plastics family and grieving over the wonderful people who were lost in the flood. Mr. O'Connor is focused on rebuilding Impact Plastics for the benefit of the employees, the customers, and the community. Impact Plastics intends to continue to play a vital role in Erwin's flood recovery,' the lawyers said.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said its own separate investigation remains ongoing.
Impact Plastic's own preliminary review of the events of September 27 found that employees had been directed to leave the plant property 'no later than 10:50 a.m.' That's around 10 minutes after the plant lost power.
O'Connor said that video footage and photos from that day showed missing employees had stayed on the road near its parking lot for 45 minutes after the plant closed.
"To Impact Plastic's knowledge, no one was ever trapped in the building or on its premises," O'Connor said.
In December, Impact Plastics and O'Connor were sued by the family of one of the employees who perished in the catastrophic flooding. The $25 million-dollar suit alleged that workers were forced to stay at their posts even after managers knew conditions were growing dangerous.
Impact Plastics has denied claims it was responsible for the employee's death.
"To the extent Impact Plastics' actions were in violation of the law, which Impact Plastics denies, Impact Plastics did not knowingly act in violation of the law, nor did Impact Plastics show reckless disregard for whether Impact Plastics was acting in violation of the law," it said.
Some family members of employees who died did not cooperate with Tennessee OSHA's investigation, Knox News reported Wednesda.
Attorneys representing former employees and their families told the publication that the report had left out witness testimonies and other evidence and criticized Impact Plastics' response.
'We vehemently disagree with any characterization that Impact Plastics exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees. The facts simply do not support such a finding, as flood waters were already too high and too strong when Impact Plastics finally, and begrudgingly, allowed workers to leave,' Luke Widener, an attorney who partners with Greg Coleman to represent Robby Jarvis and other former Impact Plastics employees or their families, said in a statement provided to The Independent on Thursday.
'Even so, by the time Impact Plastics finally communicated this, they failed to inform all employees. While workers at the surrounding businesses evacuated safely, Impact Plastics held its employees back, putting them in serious danger — which ultimately resulted in their injuries and deaths. While we agree with TOSHA's suggestion that Impact Plastics should improve its emergency plans, this comes far too late for our clients,' he said.
In September, Jarvis told The Independent that people had 'lost their lives for no reason.'
'They put profit over our lives. That angers me,' Jarvis said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Touron' sparks outrage after walking toddler up to wild bison inside Yellowstone National Park: ‘I was shocked'
A tourist has sparked outrage after being filmed walking up to a wild bison in Yellowstone National Park and taking a small child with them. The shocking incident was captured on video, with users accusing the person of child endangerment. A woman wearing a pink hat walks alongside the toddler as they approach the enormous animal, which is grazing by the side of the road. The National Parks Service requires visitors to maintain a minimum distance of 25 yards from all wildlife, including bison, elk, and deer. The individuals reportedly had ignored the signs posted around the park and the warnings of multiple people. Jennifer Gunderson, a retired professional photographer from Northwood, Ohio, who filmed the incident, said the tourist and the child were 'close enough to spit' on the bison, adding that 'never in a million years' had she witnessed 'such stupidity.' She told The Independent that she and her husband had been having lunch at the Pebble Creek picnic area, when they heard shouting and saw a few parents with small children making their way towards a bison. 'We also shouted with the others but none of these families responded and kept getting closer,' she said. 'The people next to me were on the phone with park services so I decided to start recording in case of an incident and evidence was needed.' Gunderson and her husband are hunters, and so are familiar with the safe distances needed around larger wildlife. In addition, she said, they had planned their 20th anniversary vacation celebration for Yellowstone and had seen similar videos of tourists approaching bison. 'We have watched and followed the Tourons of Yellowstone Instagram account and shaken our heads at some of the things posted. Never in our wildest dreams would we witness it in person,' she told The Independent. 'I was shocked that people would get that close to a wild animal let alone bring small children with them.' The word 'touron' – combining tourist and moron – refers to someone who ignores the dangers around them while on vacation. According to the National Parks Service a fully grown male bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, while a female can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. They can be aggressive, are agile and can run up to 30 miles an hour. Though neither the tourist or the child were hurt, cases of animal attacks are common in Yellowstone. On Tuesday tourist was gored after 'a large group of visitors approached it too closely,' park officials said. The 30-year-old man, from Randolph, New Jersey, sustained minor injuries and received treatment at the scene, according to park officials.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Washington erupts after agents handcuff Democratic Senator at DHS Secretary press conference
Washington erupted at the site of Sen. Alex Padilla of California being forcibly removed and pinned to the floor during a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Almost immediately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the apprehension of Padilla during a speech on the Senate floor. 'I just saw something that sickened my stomach, the manhandling of a United States Senator,' Schumer said. 'We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.' Padilla arrived at Noem's press conference to confront her about the Trump administration's 'increasingly extreme' actions on immigration. Los Angeles has seen unrest over the last week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a series of raids on the nation's second-largest city, which has a large Latino and immigrant population. President Donald Trump sent in the National Guard despite the governor not giving permission to do so. Padilla's apprehension came as the House of Representatives was voting. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Democrat of Texas, could barely speak to The Independent because she was saddened by it. 'I've been saying this for months now, Donald Trump wants to be a dictator, and this is the latest escalation in what has been a very, very concerning series of events in recent weeks,' Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona told The Independent. Almost immediately afterward, members of the House Democratic Caucus marched to Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office, where they passed by House Speaker Mike Johnson and heckled him as Johnson held a gaggle with reporters. Johnson, for his par,t assailed Democrats' behavior. 'The Democrat Party is on the wrong side,' Johnson told reporters. 'They're defending lawbreakers and now they're acting like lawbreakers themselves.' Afterward, as Johnson made his way to his office, Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, had a private exchange with the speaker, where Johnson supposedly told her that he is talking to Trump. 'I said, 'What's going on in LA? That's so incendiary,' she told reporters. 'What's the message that the president sent on day one when he pardoned everybody who attacked this Capitol and would have killed any one of us?' But as the White House prepared to host lawmakers for the annual congressional picnic — typically a setting for inter-branch comity — administration officials reacted to the images of Padilla being taken to his knees by federal agents with nothing short of glee. Communications Director Steven Cheung took to X to describe the California senator as 'a complete lunatic' who'd suffered a 'freak out.' One White House official slammed his behavior as 'attention-seeking' and 'embarrassing' while suggesting that Democrats who speak up in Padilla's defense will be showing themselves to be more concerned about their own privilege as elected officials than about the officers who are being harmed by violent rioters. Another said that the president had been delighted by the scene because it made Padilla look weak and emotional. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X to condemn the senator as well, writing that he'should be ashamed of his childish behavior' and accusing him of having 'crashed the middle of an official press conference being held by a cabinet secretary' and 'recklessly lunging' towards Noem while refusing to leave the room as directed by law enforcement officers. A person familiar with internal deliberations within the president's inner circle who asked not to be identified out of concern for retaliation said the administration sees no political downside to the images of law enforcement putting their hands on Democratic lawmakers because a significant portion of Trump's most fervent supporters have spent years calling for prominent members of that party to be arrested and prosecuted. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that his 'border czar,' Tom Homan, should arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He has also called for Padilla's partner in the Senate, Adam Schiff, to be arrested for treason when Schiff served as a congressman. In the hours afterward, plenty of Democratic Senators, including Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, took to the Senate floor to defend their colleague. The incident with Padilla is just the latest flash point as the Trump administration continues to ramp up its efforts to conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in the United States. It also coincides with his planned military parade.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Ramming cars and raiding churches: The ways ICE is becoming more aggressive in arresting migrants
Ramming cars, sledgehammering windows and raiding churches in pursuit of migrants appears to be the new norm for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Trump's America. Democratic lawmakers have questioned 'the appropriateness, proportionality, and execution of ICE tactics,' while immigration attorneys say the agency's approach has escalated after a series of high-profile incidents over recent weeks. 'When ICE was first active in 2003, it was supposed to protect Americans and people living within the United States,' immigration attorney Michael Cataliotti told The Independent. 'Not any more. These days, ICE is a tool being used to scare, arrest, detain, and fill up the prison systems under the guise of 'Protecting America.'' Cataliotti said that under previous administrations, ICE had more 'humanity' compared to now. 'This is astonishingly different,' the New York-based attorney said. 'It's a tremendous violation of norms, like going into churches, which were always considered off-limits, or, simply, assault and battery and reckless endangerment, when they're driving cars into folks.' Six months in President Donald Trump's second term, tensions around immigration are at an all-time high. In Los Angeles, protests broke out last weekend against ICE operations in the city and Trump responded by deploying the military. Elsewhere, other anti-ICE demonstrations ignited across the country, with more planned for Saturday. Stephen Miller is said to be the driving force behind the aggressive push. Trump's far-right architect of anti-immigration policy reportedly rallied ICE officials to 'just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,' and target buildings like Home Depots as opposed to developing a list of targets. The Independent has contacted ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment. The Department of Homeland Security bragged about ramming the car of Christian Damian Cerno-Camacho in a 'targeted arrest' this week. 'This was no hit and run. This was a targeted arrest of a violent rioter who punched a CBP officer,' the department said of Wednesday's incident in LA in a post on X. Two unmarked vehicles sandwiched Cerno-Camacho's car on Whitter Boulevard after DHS claimed he attempted to flee the scene. According to ABC7, a baby, toddler and a woman were also in the vehicle at the time of the collision. Agents drew their weapons and dragged Cerno-Camacho out of the vehicle, witnesses told the outlet. 'They just took him out using force and everything, pulling out guns while kids are in the car. That's not right,' Jesus Trujillo, the man's family member, told ABC7. Homeland Security claimed in the social media post that its officers 'are facing a 413 percent increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murders, rapists, and gang members.' Juan Francisco Mendez was on his way to a dentist appointment in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in April when ICE agents swooped and smashed his car window in with a hammer. 'I've been doing immigration work for 27 years and this was the first time that I saw such violent drastic measures being taken,' his lawyer Ondine Galvez-Sniffin said. Mendez had applied for asylum, according to his lawyers. He was being held at Sattford County Corrections in Dover, New Hampshire, but was released in May on bond. Agents reportedly told the lawyer they were looking for another man with a different name who lived in the same neighborhood before they dragged him and his wife out of the car. He has no criminal record, and the government held him for weeks without initiating deportation proceedings against him, leading to his case being dismissed by an immigration judge on May 8. After that hearing, the U.S. government charged Mendez with being in the country illegally before a judge ordered his release on a minimum bond. A pastor in the LA suburb of Downey claimed that a federal agent pointed a rifle at her during a confrontation on church property this week. Agents in unmarked vehicles showed up at Downey Memorial Christian Church Wednesday to detain a Latino man who was sitting on a bench. Senior Pastor Tanya Lopez said that she tried to move closer to the man who was detained to advise him of his rights. 'I decided to keep going closer to the vehicle so that the man could hear me say, 'Don't answer any questions. Do not sign anything,'' Lopez told Fox11. 'They did point their rifle at me and they said, 'You need to get back. You need to get back.'' ICE agents raided several businesses in Downey earlier that day, according to Downey City Council member Mario Trujillo. 'These raids at Home Depots, restaurants, places of worship or schools are not keeping our community safe,' Trujillo said at a news conference. 'They are creating havoc and fear.' Federal agents pursued a produce worker through a field of crops in Oxnard, Ventura County, California this week, sparking fear among the community. A flower vendor shared a brief clip of the moment on social media. The agents, who are not confirmed ICE officers, chased the man before he fell to the ground, KLTA5 reports. The incident was reportedly part of a string of operations in the area. Oxnard Mayor Luis McArthur said the actions were 'completely unjustified and harmful' in a video. 'They create chaos and distress in our community without contributing much to public safety,' McArthur said. Reports that immigration officials are now targeting food and produce workers have concerned the industry. Immigration authorities in Omaha, Nebraska raided a meat production plant Tuesday and took workers away in buses, according to Politico. Chad Hartmann, president of Glenn Valley Foods, said that the agents raided the plant because the federal database ICE uses to check the immigration status of employees 'is broken.' 'I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?' Hartmann told Politico. 'This is your system, run by the government. And you're raiding me because your system is broken?' Trump appeared to acknowledge the concern in a post on Truth Social Thursday. 'Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' he said, before blaming the Biden administration. 'In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!' The Associated Press contributed reporting
