OSHA Cites Company for Trenching Violations
OSHA cited Fiore Construction Co. Inc. (Leominster, MA) for alleged willful and serious safety and health violations at an Exeter, NH work site, and has proposed penalties totaling $56,800.
The alleged violations were discovered during a safety inspection conducted May 25 at an excavation located on Water Street in Exeter. Fiore Construction was contracted to install water mains for the City of Exeter and had five employees working on site at the time of the inspection.
"Employees were found working in a trench that lacked protection against a collapse of its sidewalls onto those workers," said David May, OSHA area director for New Hampshire. "[Protection for employees] could have been provided by shoring up the excavation's sidewalls, sloping the soil at a shallow angle or by the use of a protective trench box, yet the inspection found none of these standard precautions in place or in use."
May explained that collapse protection is a necessity for employees in this type of work situation, since an excavation's sidewalls can collapse suddenly and with great force, stunning and burying workers beneath tons of soil before they have a chance to react or escape. In this case, the collapse hazard was amplified by the absence of a ladder or other safe means for employees to enter and exit the trench.
He also noted that the size of the fine proposed in this case reflects the classification of the collapse protection citation as willful, the most severe category of OSHA citation. Willful citations are issued only when OSHA believes, based on its inspection, that the employer knew what safeguards were required to protect workers, yet apparently chose to forego providing them.
"Cave-in protection is—and should be—the first order of business whenever a job requires employees to work in an excavation. There's nothing unusual nor arcane about this basic, common-sense, and required safeguard, and no real excuse for failing to supply it," said May, who added that this inspection marks the sixth time since 1993 that OSHA has cited this company under the collapse protection standard.