Falling pipe kills man in trench
February 1, 2000 2 minutes read
Falling pipe kills man in trench
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Fiore Construction Co. for alleged willful and serious violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and has proposed penalties totaling $57,800.
This marks the third time in 1999 that OSHA has cited the Leominster, MA, contractor for alleged trenching safety violations on an Exeter water main installation project.
David May, OSHA area director for New Hampshire, says the alleged violations were discovered during an inspection initiated Oct. 14, 1999, in response to reports of an accident in an excavation in Exeter, where Fiore was installing water mains for the Town of Exeter. A Fiore employee was injured when a section of pipe that was being lowered into an unprotected trench slipped and pinned him against the trench’s sidewall.
"The inspection found that the trench in question, which was 6 feet to 8 feet in depth, lacked any form of cave-in protection to prevent a collapse of its sidewalls onto anyone working in that trench," May says. "Collapse protection is essential since the sides of a trench can collapse with great force and without warning, stunning and burying workers beneath tons of soil before they have a chance to react or escape. Though no collapse occurred in this case, that in no way relieves an employer of the responsibility of providing this baseline, well-known, and required safeguard."
No protective system to prevent cave-ins
May explains that OSHA’s excavation safety standard requires that excavations 5 feet or deeper must have a protective system in place to prevent cave-ins. Such protection can be supplied by shoring the trench’s sidewalls or by sloping those sidewalls at a shallow angle. He notes that neither safeguard was in place or in use in the excavation at the time of the inspection.
"Of special concern is the fact that this is the third time this year OSHA has cited this contractor under this standard on this project," he says. "OSHA has no choice but to categorize the trenching citation as willful, its most severe category. Willful citations are issued only when OSHA believes, based on its inspection, that the employer knew what measures were required to protect workers yet apparently elected to ignore them."
Specifically, the citations and proposed penalties from this latest inspection encompass one alleged willful violation, with a proposed penalty of $55,000, for employees working within a trench that was not adequately sloped or shored against collapse. There also was one alleged serious violation, with a proposed penalty of $2,800, for a damaged synthetic web sling that was not removed from service.
Previously, OSHA issued a willful trenching safety citation, with a proposed fine of $55,000, to Fiore on June 14, 1999, following its inspection of a trench and a serious trenching safety citation with a $1,000 proposed fine issued to the contractor on Aug. 16, 1999, following an inspection of another trench.
Both citations are currently under contest.
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