OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #221706609
IMPACT PLASTICS INC
ERWIN, TN—
Event description
Five employees are killed when swept away in flash flood dur
Investigation abstract
At 3:00 p.m. on September 27, 2024, employees of Impact Plastics, Inc. were at trailer, and employees into the flash flood waters. Five employees suffered fatal injuries believed to be related to exposure to the violent floodwaters. work when flash flooding associated with Hurricane Helene caused water to pool in the facility's parking lot. According to a statement released by Impact Plastics on October 3, 2024, employees were directed to leave the premises no later than 10:50 a.m. Individuals moved their vehicles to South Industrial Drive, which was higher ground compared to the facility parking lot, and remained near their vehicles. As floodwaters continued to rise, the employees climbed onto the back of a tractor-trailer flatbed truck parked on South Industrial Drive. The intensifying floodwaters eventually swept the truck,
Victims (5)
-
#1 Fatality Age 63 F
- Event type
- 14
- Occupation code
- 699
-
#2 Fatality Age 56 F
- Event type
- 14
-
#3 Fatality Age 29 F
- Event type
- 14
- Occupation code
- 719
-
#4 Fatality Age 44 F
- Event type
- 14
-
#5 Fatality Age 55 M
- Event type
- 14
- Occupation code
- 633
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.