In September 2017, 59-year-old Phillip Lee Terry was doing routine maintenance on a forklift at an Amazon warehouse near Indianapolis when the forks and heavy metal platform suddenly came down and killed him. Just a few feet away from the site of the accident was a device that would have saved his life. Why didn’t he use it?
This was John Stallone’s question when he began investigating the case for the Indiana state Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He found serious lapses in safety training and protocol at the warehouse. But all citations against Amazon eventually were dropped, and the global company ultimately paid no penalty for Terry’s death. Stallone describes a cozy relationship between Indiana officials and Amazon. He shared his story with Reveal reporter Will Evans for the first time.
In the second of a two-part series with PBS NewsHour, Reveal closely follows a trail of documents and witnesses to investigate why an Amazon worker was blamed for his own death.