Region 1 News Release: NY 143
Tuesday, May 2, 2000
Contact: Ted Fitzgerald
PHONE: (617) 565-2074
Utility Co., Previously Cited 21Times for Trenching Hazards
OSHA PROPOSES OVER $100,000 IN FINES AGAINST RHODE
ISLAND, CONTRACTOR FOR WILLFUL, REPEAT AND SERIOUS SAFETY
VIOLATIONS AT WARWICK TRENCHING WORKSITES
The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) has proposed $102,500 in fines against a
Utility Co. working
on a R.I., sewer line installation project, for alleged
Willful, Repeat and Serious violations of the Occupational
Safety and Health Act.
According to Kipp W. Hartmann, OSHA area director for Rhode
Island, the alleged violations were discovered during
inspections of three sewer line excavations located on Darrow
Drive, Pevear Avenue and Winston Avenue in Warwick and chiefly
concern inadequate protection against cave-ins for employees
working in trenches more than nine feet in depth. The company
was also cited for not adequately training employees to
recognize and avoid hazards associated with working near
energized overhead power lines. At the time of the inspection,
the Utility, Co., was installing sewer lines for the City of
Warwick.
"There are no halfway measures when it comes to
trenching," said Hartmann. "The speed and force of a
trench collapse can bury a worker under tons of crushing earth
literally in a heartbeat."
The first inspection began on November 1, 1999, after OSHA
learned of an instance in which a Utility worker contacted
an overhead power line. While investigating that incident, an
OSHA inspector identified two unprotected trenches, one on
Darrow Drive, the other on Pevear Avenue. Three days later, on
November 4, OSHA inspectors returned to the jobsite and found
employees working in another inadequately protected trench, this
one located on Winston Avenue.
Hartmann explained that the size of the fines proposed in
this case reflects the classification of two of the citations as
willful, the most severe category of OSHA violation, as well as
the company's long history of trenching safety violations.
Since 1993, the contractor has been cited 21 times for
violations of OSHA trenching safety standards at various
jobsites in Rhode Island and in
Connecticut.
In this latest case, employees were exposed to cave-in
hazards while working in unprotected areas of the trenches and
while working in trench boxes that were either defective or too
small for the trenches in which they were placed. In one
instance, a supervisor watched while an employee worked in an
unprotected section of a trench.
"There is no excuse – none – for an employer to
fail, time and again, to supply the basic, simple and
well-recognized safeguards which will absolutely and completely
protect workers laboring in trenches," said Hartmann,
"Though no fatalities or serious injuries occurred in this
case, 36 American workers lost their lives in
construction-related trench collapses in 1998. For every one
that died, another 50 suffered serious injuries, such as broken
bones and internal organ damage, caused by the crushing weight
of the falling earth."
Specifically, the citations and proposed penalties encompass:
Two alleged Willful violations, with proposed penalties of
$87,500, for:
 | failure to provide adequate cave-in protection for
employees working in trenches and failure to have a
competent person ensure that such protection was provided as
conditions warranted; |
| inadequate sloping of the soil above trench boxes, the
tops of which were 18 inches below the crest of the trench,
and failure to have a competent person conduct inspections
to ensure adequate protection of employees in the trench. |
Two alleged Repeat violations, with $12,000 in penalties
proposed, for:
| employees not adequately trained to recognize and avoid
hazards encountered while working near overhead electric
power lines; |
| failure to provide adequate cave-in protection for
employees working in a trench. |
One alleged Serious violation, with a proposed penalty of
$3,000, for:
| inadequate sloping of the soil above trench boxes, the
tops of which were 18 inches below the crest of the trench,
and allowing the walls of an excavation to extend four feet
below the bottom edge of the trench box. |
Hartmann urged Ocean State employers and employees with
questions regarding workplace safety and health standards to
contact the OSHA area office in Providence at 401-528-4669 and
added that OSHA's toll-free, nationwide hotline --1-800-321-OSHA
(1-800-321-6742)-- may be used to report workplace accidents or
fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers,
especially if they occur outside of normal business hours.
He added that detailed information and resources on
excavation safety are available on OSHA's Internet website
www.osha.gov by clicking on the following links:
"Outreach", "Construction",
"Construction Topics", "Trenching and
Excavation".
A willful violation is defined by OSHA as one committed with
an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to, the
requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and
regulations. A serious violation is defined as one in which
there is a substantial probability that death or serious
physical harm could result, and the employer knew, or should
have known, of the hazard. A repeated violation is defined by
OSHA as one where, upon reinspection, a substantially similar
violation is found.
OSHA is empowered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act
of 1970 to issue standards and rules requiring employers to
provide their employees with safe and healthful workplaces and
jobsites, and to assure through workplace inspections that those
standards are followed.
The company has 15 working days from receipt of the citations
and proposed penalties to either elect to comply with them, to
request and participate in an informal conference with the OSHA
area director, or to contest them before the independent
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
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