Open Source: Ambulances at Amazon

Brian Gordon

Hey all. I’m Brian Gordon, tech writer for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source.

I got a reader tip a while back asking me to find out how many times an ambulance has been called to the massive new Amazon distribution center in the town of Garner. Amazon doesn’t have a sterling reputation on worker safety, plus some at the Garner plant are trying to unionize, with workplace safety being one of their concerns.

So, the ambulance question intrigued me. And the answer does too.

From the day the facility opened in August 2020 through the end of September 2022, there have been 263 ambulance responses to the facility, according to the Wake County government.

Now context is key, and I’ll admit, I’m still searching for more of it. 263 ambulance responses in that period equals around one every three days. That seems frequent. And the most common cause for a response, per Wake County, has been “unconscious/fainting.” That seems concerning.

The outside of Amazon’s RDU1 facility in Garner, North Carolina.
The outside of Amazon’s RDU1 facility in Garner, North Carolina.

But is any of that abnormal for large warehouses in the state or country? More than 4,300 people work at the Garner plant. It’s past injury and illness rates have been on par with those of similar facilities, my colleague/data wizard Tyler Dukes found out.

I’ve so far gotten ambulance response records from six other North Carolina warehouses with more than 1,000 employees, and here’s what I found:

Ambulance Responses
Ambulance Responses

Would love to make this into a story-story (and not just newsletter fodder) soon. I’ll need to know a bit more first. Please reach out if you’ve got thoughts on all this.

Don’t want a dream deferred

Something else I’ve been working on, but yet to publish, is a series on the families of Triangle employees who are on a specific work visa called H1-B.

The main story profiles these workers’ children, many of who consider themselves “Documented Dreamers” because they were legally brought to the United States at a young age but face potential deportation when they turn 21.

Most H1-B workers are from India, and the Documented Dreamers I spoke to had all left India with their families by the time they were 6. In essence, they’re American. But to the U.S. immigration system, they’re H-4 dependents on their parent’s H1-B visas.

And that distinction can be very consequential.

National Tech Happenings

  • Layoffs galore across the board. Announced job cuts at Lyft, Twitter and Meta, and a hiring freeze at Amazon.

  • Twitter will charge $8 a month for verified blue checkmarks. That’ll probably mean I’m going to lose my check mark. Big win for all the fake Brian S. Gordon accounts out there.

  • Speaking of subscriptions, Netflix now has ads for $6.99 a month.

Podcast Pick of the Week

The investigative outlet Reveal discusses past workplace safety concerns at Amazon facilities nationwide.

Thanks for reading and remember to finalize your Friendsgiving plans.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

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