OSHA finds Amazon didn’t violate federal rules in light of the Edwardsville warehouse collapse

Amazon won’t face any penalties or be forced to change its severe weather response policies following a federal investigation into the deaths of six workers when a tornado hit a warehouse in Edwardsville nearly five months ago.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been investigating since the tornado hit on Dec. 10 at the online retailer’s 1.1-million-square-foot facility on Gateway Commerce Drive near the intersection of Interstate 255 and Interstate 270. OSHA investigated whether Amazon followed workplace safety standards and released their findings Tuesday.

Some employees couldn’t recall going through severe weather drills and there wasn’t an audible warning system available to alert workers about the threat, the federal investigation showed. This caused confusion among workers, some of whom were contractors and not Amazon employees, on how to react before the tornado hit at about 8:27 p.m.

Amazon employees and contracted employees who worked in the facility daily had participated in drills, according to OSHA spokesperson Rhonda Burke. It wasn’t clear if those workers who couldn’t recall the drills had actually gone through them at some point.