TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Apr 4, 2025

An investigation by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA), released Wednesday, found that workers at an East Tennessee plastics company who died in flooding from last year’s Hurricane Helene had time to evacuate, though by “makeshift routes,” the Associated Press reports. The report concluded that Impact Plastics Inc. “exercised reasonable diligence to dismiss employees and direct them to leave the site in this emergency situation.” An attorney representing one of the families of a worker who died alleges that TOSHA’s report overlooks witness testimony, critical text messages, emergency alert logs and photographic evidence. The report relies on the fact that some Impact Plastics employees did escape the flood and notes that the investigation was hindered by “phone service disruptions, language barriers and other challenges,” and that the flooding destroyed the company’s workplace safety records. In addition to TOSHA, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is probing the six deaths, with that investigation still ongoing.