The Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that a Boise, Idaho contractor did not take the proper safety precautions and if he had, they could have prevented the deaths of two workers and significant injuries to another worker after a trench collapsed that the company was working on.
The Hard Rock Construction Company was hired to do utility work underground, and workers were in a trench that was between nine and eleven feet deep. The trench caved in while workers were in the trench and two workers died, a third had serious injuries.
They received three serious citations and one willful citation, which can be viewed here. The company has 24 employees who work in excavation, grading and underground utility installation. Cave-ins are one of the most common causes of death in construction.
OSHA inspectors found that the company failed to protect the trench from cave-ins and accordingly, failed their workers. They were issued a willful violation for that. They were given three serious citations for failing to provide a ladder for workers to get in or out of the trench, for failing to train their employees on recognizing hazards of working in trenches, and for failing to have a competent individual doing inspections on the trench system to look for potential cave-in hazards.
The OSHA Boise area director, David Kearns, said the accident could have been prevented.
“Our investigation found Hard Rock Construction made almost no effort to protect its workers, or even to understand the right ways to avoid the common hazards in this line of work. Hiring workers and assuming they know how to protect themselves is a sure path to tragedy,” said Kearns.
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