Factory Not Responsible After 6 Workers Died During Hurricane Helene Flooding, TOSHA Reports

• On Sept. 27, 2024, six Impact Plastics employees died during the floods caused by Hurricane Helene while holing onto a truck, after evacuating the factory
• The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) began an investigation to find whether Impact Plastics was responsible for the employees’ deaths
• On April 2, TOSHA found that Impact Plastics was not responsible because the incident was “not work-related”

The Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration (TOSHA) found that Impact Plastics Inc., a factory in Erwin, Tenn., is not responsible for the deaths of six factory workers who died in flooding from last year’s Hurricane Helene, according to the Associated Press, NBC News and WJHL.

TOSHA said on Wednesday, April 2, that the six employees had time to evacuate by “makeshift routes.”

Five employees and one contractor who cleaned the facility were killed in the hurricane’s floods on Sept. 27. TOSHA began its investigation on Oct. 3. The victims were Monica Hernandez-Corona, 44; Bertha Mendoza, 56; Johnny Peterson, 55; Lidia Verdugo Gastelum, 63; Rosa Maria Andrade Reynoso, 29; and Sibrina Barnett, 53.

“It was found that Impact Plastics, Inc. exercised reasonable diligence to dismiss employees and direct them to leave the site in this emergency situation,” TOSHA’s report reads. “As the deaths of Impact Plastics, Inc. employees are not work related, no citations are recommended.”

Impact Plastics issued a statement, saying it “welcomes the results” of the TOSHA investigation. “The facts and the truth are now known, and according to the official investigation by Tennessee OSHA,” the statement concluded, per WHJL.

However, the legal teams for the surviving family members dispute the report’s claims that the employees were dismissed from work with time to safely evacuate.

Greg Coleman, an attorney for the Mendoza and Barnett families, told PEOPLE that they “vehemently disagree with any characterization that Impact Plastics exercised reasonable diligence in dismissing employees,” claiming that “the facts simply do not support.”

Coleman told PEOPLE that a court and a jury will determine who is liable for the deaths and injuries. He confirmed that a court date has not been set.

“TOSHA’s report ignores the testimony of multiple witnesses, critical text messages, emergency alert logs, and photographic evidence that tell the real story about Impact Plastics’ fatal failures,” attorney Alex Little, who represents the family of Johnny Peterson, told PEOPLE. “We’re grateful that in America, juries — not bureaucrats citing unnamed sources — will decide the truth based on all the evidence.”

Coleman told PEOPLE that Impact Plastics claimed to have “told employees they could leave, including delivering this message to its Spanish-speaking employees.” But, he claimed that “the single bilingual manager on site recounted that she was never told employees were free to leave and that information from Impact Plastics’ upper management was never communicated to employees, let alone Spanish-speaking employees.”

Peterson’s family alleged in a wrongful death lawsuit that managers at the company committed “reckless and negligent conduct” that led to the death of Peterson and others, the Tennessee Lookout reported. Management allegedly did not allow employees to leave the premises, even as the National Weather Service issued dire warnings about the weather and urged those in the area to evacuate to higher ground.

The Petersons’ complaint also alleged that the bosses at Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tenn., including CEO Gerald O’Connor, “stealthily exited the building” while telling employees that they had to remain in place, even as water began to flood the company’s staff parking lot and the only road leading out of the industrial park, according to the Tennessee Lookout.

Peterson and 10 other employees eventually fled the area, clinging to plastic pipes from a semi-truck, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. When the truck tipped over, the workers were carried away by surging water from the nearby Nolichucky River.

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Representatives for the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Impact Plastics did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Friday.