CHICAGO — A lawsuit against Amazon was filed Monday by the family of a delivery driver who was killed in December after a tornado hit an Amazon warehouse downstate, according to the family’s attorneys.
Six people who had been working at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville died following the Dec. 10 storm, which left dozens dead across multiple states. Among them was independent contractor Austin McEwen, 26, who, like other workers, was allegedly required to work under conditions management knew to be unsafe, according to a news release from the law firm retained by the family. The facility had inadequate emergency plans and no basement shelter, the lawsuit contends, and McEwen and others who died were told to shelter in a bathroom during the storm.
The suit was e-filed Monday morning in Madison Circuit Court, though the courthouse was closed for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, an attorney for the family said.
