Exposed Workers to Trenching Hazards on Motgomery Job
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health
Administration has cited Loveland-based Carter Construction Co. Inc.
with four – including two willful – safety violations for exposing
workers to excavation hazards while installing an underground storm
sewer pipe in a 20-foot-deep trench in Montgomery. OSHA's June
inspection was conducted under the agency's National Emphasis Program on
Trenching and Excavation. Proposed penalties total $68,500.
"Carter Construction has a responsibility to ensure that workers are
properly protected from known workplace hazards such as trench cave-ins,
a leading cause of death and injury in excavation work," said Bill
Wilkerson, OSHA's area director in Cincinnati. "OSHA is committed to
protecting workers, especially when employers fail to do so."
The willful violations include failing to provide sidewall protection in
a trench and to remove employees from an excavation where hazards were
identified. A willful violation is one committed with intentional
knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain
indifference to worker safety and health.
Two serious violations include failing to keep equipment and material at
least 2 feet back from the excavation's edge, and provide a means of
entry into and exit from an open excavation. A serious violation occurs
when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical
harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should
have known.
OSHA standards mandate that all excavations 5 feet or deeper be
protected against collapse. Detailed information on trenching and
excavation hazards is available at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/trenchingexcavation/index.html.
Carter Construction has 15 business days from receipt of its citations
and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area
director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational
Safety and Health Review Commission.
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or
report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing
imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free
hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Cincinnati Area Office at
513-841-4132.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are
responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their
employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's
working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing
training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
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