Tennessee factory workers' deaths during Hurricane Helene 'not work-related,' state agency finds
Tennessee’s workplace safety agency has absolved a plastics plant of responsibility in the deaths of six workers who were swept away by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene.
Tennessee’s workplace safety agency has absolved a plastics plant of responsibility in the deaths of six workers who were swept away by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in September.
The Sept. 27 deaths gained national attention when community members and relatives of the mostly Latino plant employees questioned why they hadn’t been dismissed from work early enough to escape the record levels of rain that overcame the plastics factory in Erwin and the only road out.
The report from the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) published Wednesday, said that because “work operations had stopped and employees had left the building,” the deaths were not work-related and thus not within its jurisdiction.
“After considering the evidence," Chris Cannon, a spokesman with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, said, "TOSHA determined that company management exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees and providing them sufficient time to leave the facility safely.”
A criminal probe by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation into the deaths is still underway, said Leslie Earhart, the bureau’s spokesperson.
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