Excavation Safety in Review 2016

Draft 2 25 2017

Dec 2016• BELTON, Mo• First responders worked in

the freezing cold temperatures for nearly 10 hours to recover his body.

• He was buried under 8 feet of dirt.

• Family members have identified the man killed as 30-year-old Donald “DJ” Meyer.

• He’s a father from Oak Grove who was raising his 8-year-old son, Ashton, on his own after Meyer’s wife died a few years ago

Dec 2016• JEFFERSON TWP., OH • Rescue crews have extricated a

construction worker who fell into a trench

• The Violet Township Fire Department says a contracted worker for the city of Columbus was on a piece of machinery, digging a trench for a city sewage project.

• The man fell about 15 feet off the machine and into the hole and was in a “precarious position.”

Dec 2016

• Montford NJ• Worker trapped in

trench

November 2016• Berryville, VA• A man who was buried up to his neck after

the trench he was digging collapsed has died.

• The victim was digging a trench for a water line when the dirt collapsed on him.

• Police later identified the victim as 48-year-old Russell Allen Polen of Front Royal, Virginia.

• Polen was an employee of Broy and Son Pump Service, which was contracted to repair an underground utility line at the trench.

November 2016• Kansas City• OSHA says an employee of Hydro Tech Plumbing was injured after

the trench he was working in collapsed. • The worker was repairing underground sewer lines in a trench more

than 10 feet deep. 

Nov 2016• Greenbelt MD• Rescue crews were pumping

oxygen and warmer air into the trench and the worker received fluids from an IV. Brady said the man was also hooked up to an EKG so medics can monitor his heart activity during the rescue efforts.

• The worker is injured but stable, Brady said.

Nov 2016• SEVEN HILLS, Ohio - The U.S.

Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Cleveland office has opened an investigation after learning a 28-year-old employee of W.F. Hann & Sons was injured while installing sewer lines in an 8-foot trench in Seven Hills on Nov. 19, 2016.

• While working in the trench at approximately 1:30 p.m., the soil suddenly shifted, and the trench walls around him collapsed - burying him in an estimated 14,000 pounds of dirt. The force of the soil was so great that it shattered a piece of 4 x 8 inch thick strand board the company used for shoring. A co-worker dug him out of the trench quickly and saved the man's life. The Seven Hills Fire Department responded to the 911 call and transported the employee to Metro Hospital.

October 2016• Sioux Falls excavating

contractor for five serious safety violations after the agency's investigators found a 40-year-old equipment operator suffered severe injuries while working in a 16-foot-deep trench on Oct. 28, 2016.

• A large amount of dirt fell into a trench box in which the man was working and collapsed upon him.

• The worker was installing sewer lines at a site in Brandon, South Dakota.

October 2016• Carroll County, GA• A construction worker was killed while

in a trench. The earth around caved in.• Once notified, emergency crews from

Carroll and Haralson Counties and West GA Ambulance raced to the scene. They were able to pull the man from the dirt but were unable to resuscitate him.

• When trenches reach a certain depth, construction companies are required to use trench boxes to keep the walls secure. OSHA will determine if there was in a trench box in the hole at the time of the collapse.

October 2016• Boston, MA• Two construction workers were killed when

a water line burst under a South End street, flooding the trench where they were working with a torrent of water that thwarted desperate attempts to save them.

• Workers cried out, “There’s two guys in the hole!” but the water came on too fast. The trench was between 12 to 15 feet deep.

• At least two people working in the trench managed to escape.

• Atlantic Drain Service Co has a lengthy history of serious safety violations dating back to 2012, and has faced tens of thousands of dollars in OSHA fines.

September 2016• Camden, SC• Kershaw County Coroner identified the man as

25-year-old Juan Penaloza of Columbia. • Penaloza and another man were working on a

sewer and water line project in a trench about 7 feet deep when it collapsed.

• One of the men managed to escape safely, however, Penaloza did not. Camden city EMS got to the scene within 10 minutes but were not able to save the victim, who died on the scene.

• Pearson said a trench box was not in place to prevent a cave in.

• Recovery of the victim took extra time because of the unsafe status of the trench. Emergency responders had to construct a stabilization system so they could work in the trench safely.

September 2016• American Fork, UT• A construction worker was killed after jumping

into a trench to save a co-worker from a cave in.• Workers were installing a water line when the

dirt began caving in on one of the men, who was six feet down in the trench.

• Three workers jumped into the trench, each to help save the others.

• One worker made it out unharmed while another had to be pulled to safety and was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

• However, the third worker who jumped in became trapped and was stuck for more than an hour. Police compared it to being in quicksand.

• By the time firefighters reached the worker, he was dead.

Sep 2016

• Edina Texas• 13 feet deep. • The second victim,

identified later as 22-year-old Nathan Fryday, was overtaken by the collapse, eventually losing his life as rescue efforts pressed forward.

August 2016• Lockhart, TX• One man died and another

person was taken to the hospital after a collapse at an excavation project.

• Mercer Construction of Edna, Texas was digging a sewer line for a new housing development.

• A city employee told KVUE the company was allegedly not using proper shoring to keep a collapse from happening. Mercer declined to comment on the allegations.

August 2016• Houston TX• One person is dead after a

trench collapsed Monday afternoon in Manvel.

• Contractors with Jaho Paving and Utility were digging a trench around 15 feet in the ground in order to install a sanitation sewer in a new subdivision near Highway 6 and Savannah Parkway.

August 2016• ROCKY MOUNT, NC (WTVD) -- A man was killed Monday in a collapse at a pond construction site on Red Barn Lane near Rocky Mount in Edgecombe County.

• Authorities said 36-year-old Edward Patrick Webb of Edgecombe County was installing an overflow pipe at a new pond site when the accident happened.

July 2016• Officials in Minnetonka say two

road workers were buried in soil for about 20 minutes after a trench collapsed Monday morning.

• The victim who had been completely buried was unresponsive and in very serious condition, according to a city official, while the other victim is in moderate condition.

• According to an initial investigation, the victims were prepping the area for water utility work that’s part of the city’s street reconstruction.

July 2016• Willoughby, OH• OSHA has opened an investigation after

four workers who were replacing sewer lines were buried when the trench collapsed.

• Only two of the four workers on the scene were injured.

• OSHA’s preliminary investigation indicated that the workers—who are employees of Domenick Electric Sewer Cleaning Company Inc.—were in a 10-foot deep trench with sheer walls and no visible trench box when the trench collapsed.

July 2016

• St. Louis • A worker was trapped

20 feet underground • Mud and dirt from the

end buried the worker up to the waist.

• He was trapped for an hour.

July 2016• A Mansfield LA man died in a construction accident in Bastrop Friday morning.

• Sheriff Mike Tubbs says crews were digging to install a sewer line in front of Walmart when the embankment collapsed. Two men were trapped.

• Workers were able to rescue one man who was trapped from the waist down. However, they were unable to rescue the other man.

June 2016• LEBANON, Pa. (WHTM) – A

Lebanon County man pulled from a collapsed trench Monday has died at a hospital.

• Nathan Halteman, 52, died at Penn State Hershey Medical Center from multiple traumatic injuries, Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said.

• Halteman, a self-employed contractor, was working in a 15-feet-deep trench at Triple-M Farms in South Lebanon Township when the ground around him collapsed, authorities said.

June 2016• Montgomery County

AL — A man who died after becoming trapped in a collapsed trench Wednesday was identified as James Rogers, 33, of Winchester, Ohio.

• Accident happened at new home construction site

• OSHA investigating the incident

June 2016• MADELIA MN• A medical examiner

determined the preliminary cause of death of David James Erickson, 28, of Ironwood, Mich., was asphyxia due to chest compression.

Erickson was in a trench box working to place underground piping on a farm in Lincoln Township when the trench caved in and he became trapped. The rescue effort took more than five hours due to the unstable soil.

June 2016

• OSHA cited an Ohio company after a 33-year-old employee was crushed to death in June 2016 as he was digging soil out of the 12-foot trench in Washington Township, when the trench walls around him collapsed - burying him in thousands of pounds of dirt.

June 2016• Oregon OH• Oregon Assistant Police Chief

Paul Magdich said the Jacob Angelos, 29 was killed when he was pinned between some heavy equipment and a pipe while working on the pipeline.

May 2016

• INDIANAPOLIS — • 32-year-old man was freed

from the trench about 30 minutes after it collapsed and taken to a hospital in good condition.

• Reith says that by the time the first fire apparatus arrived on the scene minutes later, the man had been uncovered to mid-chest.

• Firefighters shored up the trench and helped him extricate himself.

May 2016

• On May 5, 2016, at 2:43 p.m., IFD responded to an incident that was first dispatched as an “injured person” with Engine 4 and Medic 4 responding to the call. The temperature was approximately 83 degrees F and it was sunny, with 60 percent humidity and a light breeze. The incident took place in a residential area as a subcontractor for the city was replacing a sewer line in the area of 2110 Ridgewood Street. The city crew had dug a trench approximately 4 feet wide by 30 feet long through the concrete roadway. The trench ran in an east-west direction in line with the roadway. An excavator was straddling the trench just west of the patient, with the bucket positioned to the north side of the trench, in the area where the collapse had occurred.

May 2016• Lexington KY• The victim, Samuel Tyler

Williams, was a married father of three

• Trench along Todds Road was 16 feet deep; worker was covered by dirt, gravel

• Trench is between a retaining wall and the pavement

May 2016• DENVER, Iowa • The Denver Police Department

says construction workers were digging along the foundation wall of a building in Denver when a portion of the wall tipped over on Monday and trapped 56-year-old Henry Gray, of Clarksville.

• Firefighters and the owner of Snelling Construction freed Gray from under the wall, but he died at the scene.

May 2016• PORTLAND, Ore. - A sewer

worker died in a trench collapse Thursday in the Garden Home area, Portland Fire & Rescue said.

• The worker had been at the bottom of the trench, which measured 11 feet deep, 3 feet wide and 70 feet long, according to Portland Fire & Rescue.

• The trench was equipped with shoring, which is a temporary set of walls with bracing to hold back the earth around it and prevent collapse.

May 2016• Boise, ID• Two construction workers died

after they were buried in a trench.• Three workers were working in a

trench about nine feet deep that they had dug for a utility line when a wall collapsed on them. When Boise Fire crews arrived, they found one man partially uncovered in the trench and were able to pull him out.

April 2016• Delaware, OH• Two men were taken to the hospital

after the trench in which they were working collapsed.

• Delaware County EMS said the two men were partially buried in the trench for about an hour and a half until they could be freed from the dirt.

• The men were digging about six or seven feet deep in the trench, which was not properly reinforced on the sides, when it partially collapsed.

March 2016• Mentor OH• The investigation into the

March 29 collapse that killed Alexander J. Marcotte revealed his employer, Aqua Ohio, did not provide trench cave-in protection for its employees,

• 5-8 feet deep with spoil at edge.

March 2016• Alliance NE Police say Jimmy Spencer of Minatare died Monday after being buried in an eight-foot-deep trench while installing sewer lines for a home.

• It took several minutes for rescuers to remove enough dirt to check Spencer's vital signs.

• He died at the scene. • Another construction

worker was injured and treated at the hospital.

Cheryl Spencer - My husband died in his cave in....I would go for prison time! But the guy at fault got a fine of 21000, which I'm sure will lowered, n his life goes on.

March 2016• Hays, KS• Employees with J Corp were working in

an 11-foot deep trench when it collapsed, trapping workers.

• One employee, Agustin Macias, was able to escape with only a broken arm. But the incident led to the deaths of Aaron T. Pfannenstiel, 44, and James L. “Jake” Jacobs, 66, both of Hays.

• Rescue personnel worked for several hours to reach the two men trapped. But soon after they arrived on the scene, rescue efforts switched to recovery efforts.

• Trench boxes were not in place at the time.

January 2016

• Seattle, WA• A proposed $51,500 in fines for

safety violations has been issued to a Seattle contractor in the death of a construction worker after a trench collapsed on him.

• Harold Felton, 36, died Jan. 26 during a sewer-repair project. Rescuers were unable to dig him out and save his life after dirt walls in the 7-foot-deep and just under 2-foot-wide trench collapsed and buried him.

January 2016• Des Moines, IA• “He said if he got in a hole

and he died, it’s his fault,” the widow of a 30-year-old employee of an Iowa excavation company told the Des Moines Register after her husband was killed in a trench collapse last January. “He took a risk every day.”

“I lose my husband, and they only get $4,500 in fines,” Brandy Jorgensen told the Des Moines Register. “The day I read that, I lost it.”

January 2016• Altoona, IA• 30-year-old Justin Jorgensen, of Colfax,

was killed after the trench he was working in collapsed. It took crews more than six hours to recover his body.

• Jorgensen was working in the trench that was between 10 and 12 feet deep with an excavating tool when the dirt caved in. The collapse happened while workers were digging water and sewer lines.

• OSHA regulations require there to be a trench wall in areas more than 5 feet deep. The trench Jorgensen was working in did not have a trench wall, authorities said.