Trench Safety And Osha Reg's

Subject

Construction specialties occupies four to five of the top ten most dangerous job rankings published by reputable sources including CNN and Forbes. Despite increasing safety standards and regulations construction still produces more deaths each year than any other occupation except traveling salesmen. The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for most of these standards. Over the past couple of years trench safety has received a lot of attention due to recent cave-ins. "Between 2000 and 2005 OSHA investigated 12 fatal trenching accidents in Georgia alone", said John J. Deifer, OSHA's Savannah area director. The number has continued to increase over the past year or so. Diefer also added "Safe work practices could have prevented these tragedies". Employers are responsible for providing a safe work place for their employees. For employers to avoid liability for personal injuries they have to work toward trying to prevent accidents from ever happening.

Cases Studied

On October 8, 2002 in Savannah, Georgia a trench cave-in took the life of a Pitts Plumbing employee. The trench had been dug to a depth of about 9-foot, 40-foot long, and approximately 7-foot wide when the victim entered to take measurements for the installation of two 2,500-gallon tanks. A co-worker assisting with the measurements was standing on top of the trench when he started to notice the asphalt beside the trench was beginning to crack, he called out a warning to his coworker who started to run to safety but was hit by the collapsing trench wall.

On June 8, 2005 in Morrow, Georgia OSHA begin an inspection where soil was being excavated from underneath a highway by Don Hall Construction for the instillation of a sewer drain line. The employer provided a trench box 20-foot long by 8-foot tall for protection of employees in a trench 40-foot long by 11-foot deep.

Legal Issues

It was deemed in both of the above cases by OSHA that the employers were aware of excavation safety requirements but choose to not use the correct method, and in one case ended in tragedy. In each case both Pitts Plumbing and Hall Construction received full liability for negligence towards OSHA standards and regulations. In certain instances the general contractor could be held liable for the injuries of subcontractors employees even with the injuries being a direct result of the subcontractors negligence. These instances occur when a General Contractor knows or should know about a subcontractor not protecting its employees from a know hazard. This can come about by a safety supervisor being provided, a safety program being initiated, or ensuring compliance with safety rules and regulations. Some contracts between the General Contractor and Owner require that the GC shall have overall responsibility and provide these safety precautions and programs. The owner usually assigns responsibility for project safety away through contracts. But, in certain instances the owner may be held liable for retaining some sort of control over the GC such it may not be free to do its work the in the way it sees fit.

Lack of good faith on the part of each employer resulted in one willful citation each along with other citations. OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to, the requirements of the OSHA Act and regulations. A serious violation is 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.

Hall Construction's willful citation came with a proposed penalty of $56,000, for failing to adequately protect workers from potential trench wall collapses. Four repeat citations were also handed out with proposed penalties totaling $27,200, for failing to provide workers with hard hats and a safe means of entering and exiting the trench, and failing to assure that material was safely excavated and placed more that tow feet from the trench edge. The company was fined an additional $6,000 for two serious violations, using defective ladders and failing to properly install trench shields.

Pitts Plumbing received one willful citation with a proposed penalty of $49,000 for failing to protect employees working in an excavation by using a trench box or by properly sloping the trench walls to prevent cave-ins. Two additional citations for alleged serious violations with penalties totaling $2,550 for failing to provide workers with hard hats while working in the trench and for failing to provide a ladder long enough to allow employees to safely enter and exit the trench.

What I believe should be done

By these two incidents being in Georgia it was easy for OSHA to determine whether or not the employers were aware of safe trenching practices. Because, in Georgia it's a state law for at least one onsite employee to have gone through