Safety First News
A Tale of Two Trench Collapse Companies
August 27, 2017
Two separate companies have allegedly allowed trenches to collapse on workers by not following minimum safety requirements laid out by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). First Dakota Enterprises, Inc. was cited by OSHA for a May, 2017 trench collapse on a 34-year-old, and Arrow Plumbing, LLC was cited for the death of a 33-year-old worker in December of 2016, also a result of a trench collapse.
Trench collapses on workers are all too common, yet they are even more preventable, which begs the question, “Why won’t some trenching companies follow basic life safety rules?” The answer, unfortunately, is, “They choose not to.” For example, Arrow Plumbing, LLC, fresh off of their 33-year-old worker being killed in a 12-foot deep trench collapse with no protections, was cited four months later for exposing two other workers in an 8-foot to 13-foot trench, again with no protections, according to OSHA.
Let’s go back to First Dakota Enterprises, Inc., located in Fort Pierre, South Dakota. OSHA issued proposed penalties of $95,064 allegedly stemming from a trench collapse onto a worker who was working in an unprotected 14-foot trench. On May 23, 2017, First Dakota Enterprises, Inc. was working on Emery, SD main sewer and water lines when a 14-foot trench collapsed around a worker, completely burying him. Workers frantically scraped away the soil to expose the worker’s head so he could breathe, but it took emergency personnel more than half an hour to free the worker.
The thing is, OSHA’s citation contained two “Repeat” violations. First Dakota Enterprises knew not to put workers in trenches greater than 5 feet deep without appropriate protections from trench collapse, yet they did it anyway because, it would appear, they chose to do so. The two repeat violations were:
- 29 CFR 1926.652(a)(1) - Each employee in an excavation shall be protected from cave-ins by an adequate protective system…, and
- 29 CFR 1926.651(j)(2) - Employees shall be protected from excavated or other materials or equipment that could pose a hazard by falling or rolling into excavations…
Trenching construction companies who choose not to ensure workers are protected from the hazards of trench collapse are an epidemic and the problem appears to be getting worse in the United States. Fifteen (15) workers have died in trench collapses nationwide this year as of June 1, 2017. For all of 2016, a total of twenty-three (23) fatalities occurred that were associated with trenches and excavations.
One might assume the epidemic stems from a series of companies with little experience being hit by a fatal trench collapses, but that doesn’t appear to be the case with these two companies. For First Dakota Enterprises and Arrow Plumbing, it appears near fatalities, and even fatalities, won’t disrupt forging ahead in the same old way –without taking basic, minimum safety measures to protect workers.
OSHA penalized the Arrow Plumbing, based in Belton, MO, nearly $300,000 ($294,059) for violations that lead to the death of D.J. Meyer in December of 2016. Four months later, fresh off the death of D.J. Meyer in a 12-foot deep trench, Arrow Plumbing allegedly allowed two workers to enter an unprotected trench that was 8-feet to 13-feet deep. OSHA posted proposed additional penalties against Arrow Plumbing of over $700,000 ($714,142).