Tornado fatalities: Survivors sue Amazon

Following the devastating tornado tragedy in the United States, a victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.

Amazon had to mourn six dead employees after a devastating tornado in the US state of Illinois in December after a logistics center collapsed. Now the family of a victim has filed a lawsuit against the company in a Madison County court. The victim in question was 26-year-old Austin McEwen, who worked as a delivery truck driver for Amazon.

In the lawsuit, Amazon is after Information from Reuters accused the company of knowing that the circumstances that day were “highly uncertain as tornado warnings were issued”. However, those responsible within the company played with people’s lives “to put profit over safety,” family lawyer Jack J. Casciato is quoted as saying. The plaintiffs are seeking millions of dollars in damages. They also hope “that companies like Amazon would learn from it”.

Amazon wants to take action against lawsuit

Amazon itself has already announced through company spokeswoman Kelly Nantel that the collapsed warehouse met the necessary safety standards and applicable regulations and that they want to take action against the lawsuit.

“We are convinced that immediately after the warning, our team did the right thing to get people to safety as quickly as possible,” she was quoted as saying by Reuters. “We will defend ourselves against this lawsuit, but our focus remains on supporting our employees and partners, the families who have lost loved ones, the surrounding community and everyone affected by the tornadoes.”

Tornado had collapsed warehouse

On December 10, 2021, multiple tornadoes left hundreds of miles of devastation in several US states, killing more than 60 people in Kentucky alone. A tornado hit an Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville, Illinois, causing the building to collapse.

After the accident, there was criticism of Amazon’s guidelines for an alleged ban on cell phones for employees, but also of the decisions of managers who, according to allegations, did not care enough about the safety of employees – for example, there was a case given in which an Amazon driver was instructed to continue her tour despite the tornado.

Amazon itself then announced that there was no such cell phone ban and that there was no possible misconduct in its own ranks, where the employees had all followed the necessary safety precautions. Instead, it must be examined whether any wrong decisions were made by subcontractors and whether the applicable safety regulations were violated.