The owner of the Tennessee factory where workers drowned after Hurricane
Helene won't face charges
[July 19, 2025]
By TRAVIS LOLLER and JONATHAN MATTISE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The owner of a factory where six workers died
last year in flooding from Hurricane Helene won't face charges after a
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation found no criminal wrongdoing. First
Judicial District Attorney General Steven Finney announced the decision
to close the case on Friday, saying no further action will be taken.
The investigation found no evidence that Impact Plastics employees were
told they could not leave the factory or that they would be fired if
they left, according to a news release from the district attorney. It
also found employees had a little more than an hour during which they
could have evacuated from the Erwin, Tennessee, industrial park. The
conclusion mirrors that of a similar investigation by the Tennessee
Occupational Safety and Health Administration that found in April that
workers had time to evacuate the premises, albeit by makeshift routes.
A statement from Impact Plastics attorney Stephen Ross Johnson on Friday
said company president and founder Gerald O’Connor welcomes the results
of the TBI investigation.
“The true and accurate facts are now known,” the statement reads.
Five employees and one contractor who cleaned the offices once a week
were killed on Sept. 27 after they were washed away by floodwaters. They
were among 12 people who stuck close to the Impact Plastics building,
waiting for the water to recede, after realizing the exit road was
already submerged. When the water kept rising, they climbed onto the bed
of a semitrailer loaded with giant spools of plastic piping that was
parked outside the factory. When floodwaters eventually overwhelmed the
truck, six people were able to use the piping for flotation and were
later rescued. The other six drowned.
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Debris lays in front of Impact Plastics Inc. in Erwin, Tenn., Nov.
22, 2024. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
The TOSHA report notes that several Impact Plastics employees did
escape the flood. Some were able to drive or walk over an embankment
to a nearby highway after workers at a neighboring business
dismantled a fence there. Others escaped by driving over a makeshift
path onto nearby railroad tracks that an employee at a neighboring
business created with a tractor. Still others were able to escape by
walking to the railroad tracks, according to that report.
Although the criminal case is being closed, the company still faces
a wrongful death lawsuit from the family of Johnny Peterson, and
other civil suits are planned.
Attorney Luke Widener, who represents the families of several flood
victims, said in a statement that they “categorically disagree that
Impact Plastics employees were given any meaningful opportunity to
escape. ...Indeed, if Impact Plastics’ account were true, Bertha
Mendoza, Sibrina Barnett, and the others who perished would still be
with us."
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