Family of Tennessee factory worker who died in flooding files wrongful death lawsuit

The family of Johnny Peterson, a Tennessee factory worker who died in severe flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against his employer.

Peterson was one of 11 workers at the Impact Plastics factory in Erwin who were swept away in floodwaters on Sept. 27. Of those affected, five were rescued, four remain unaccounted for and Peterson was among the two confirmed dead.

In the wrongful death lawsuit, Peterson's family argues that he and his co-workers were forced to remain at the factory, despite asking to leave due to the dangerous weather conditions.

Impact Plastics and the company's CEO, Gerald O'Connor, are named as defendants in the 28-page complaint.

"Impact Plastics CEO Gerald O'Connor made Johnny and other employees come to work that day to meet production quotas. Orders had to go out. But as rain poured and the water rose, Johnny and his coworkers asked to leave. Instead of evacuating or allowing employees to leave, the company simply told employees to move their cars to higher ground. By then, it was already too late," Peterson's family said in the complaint filed Monday.

The lawsuit alleges the company and O'Connor did not have an "emergency action plan" for employees, despite the factory being located on a "federally designated flood plain."

"Impact Plastics, led by Mr. O'Connor, chose greed over the safety of its workers. The deaths caused by Hurricane Helene's flooding were not just tragic -- they were entirely preventable," Peterson's family alleged in the lawsuit.

Earlier this month, Tennessee state authorities announced a separate investigation into allegations made against Impact Plastics' handling of events on Sept. 27.

The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are working together to determine the cause of the workplace fatalities at the Erwin facility, officials announced on Oct. 3.

TOSHA officials said Impact Plastics failed to report the workplace fatalities.

"Tennessee law allows an employer 8 hours to notify TOSHA of workplace fatalities," the company said in a press release at the time. "TOSHA has not received a fatality report from managers at Impact Plastics."

In a statement to the Associated Press, Impact Plastics said that it "continued to monitor weather conditions" on the day of the flooding and managers dismissed employees when water began covering the parking lot and the adjacent service road, and the plant lost power.

Impact Plastics expressed sympathy for the missing and deceased workers but stated that workers were given time to leave the factory.

"While most employees left immediately, some remained on or near the premises for unknown reasons," the company said in a statement to AP.

In the statement, O'Connor emphasized that no employee was threatened with termination for leaving. "We made sure the message was clear, even for non-English-speaking staff, by using bilingual managers to communicate," he said.