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CHICAGO (CBS) — The family of an Amazon delivery driver who was killed when a tornado hit a warehouse in downstate Edwardsville last month plans to file a lawsuit against the online retail giant.
Attorneys with Chicago-based Clifford Law Offices said they will file the lawsuit on Monday in Madison County Circuit Court, on behalf of the family of 26-year-old Austin McEwen, one of six workers who were killed when a tornado hit the 1.1-million-square-foot Amazon delivery depot in Edwardsville on Dec. 10.
The law firm said Amazon management knew or should have known about the risk of a tornado more than 24 hours before it hit the warehouse, and failed to adhere to U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) preparedness plans for severe weather. They said Amazon could have evacuated employees, but instead chose to have them keep working.
The facility also did not have a basement shelter, and no safety plan or adequate emergency plan required by OSHA, according to the law firm.
“Initial reports from those that survived this avoidable tragedy are disturbing. We certainly intend to discover what precautions Amazon could have taken to save lives. Certainly, this entire facility could have been evacuated when it was believed a tornado was en route. It appears that holiday profits took precedence over safety,” Clifford Law Offices partner Jack Casciato said in a statement. “We need to find out if training and emergency protocols were in place for those in the building as well as those who entered the building with jobs regularly connected to Amazon outside of the facility.”
OSHA has opened an investigation into whether Amazon did enough to protect the workers.
Of the 46 people inside the warehouse at the time the tornado hit, 39 made it to the north side of the building, the site of a shelter in place location. Seven stayed on the south end, and that’s where all six fatalities and one injury occurred. That’s because on the south side of the building, there is no shelter in place location.
Amazon has said in the minutes before the tornado hit, leaders used bullhorns to notify workers on the floor and radios to notify drivers heading toward the facility of the pending twister. The company also has denied claims workers at the warehouse aren’t allowed to have cell phones on the job.
OSHA is now joining state and local investigators looking into the deadliest tornado in Illinois in quite awhile. Gov. JB Pritzker has said while there’s no early indication of code violations, perhaps new codes need to be considered moving forward.
In addition to McEwen, five other people were killed when the tornado hit the warehouse: 29-year-old Clayton Lynn Cope, 46-year-old Larry E. Virden, 62-year-old Kevin D. Dickey, 28-year-old Deandre Morrow, and 34-year-old Etheria Hebb.
Source: ChicagoCBS
