Why We Work Safely in Trenches
I recently read an article that was an update about a legal case proceeding from a trench collapse and double-fatality that happened in the Boston area in 2016. Kelvin “Chuck” Mattocks, 53, a married father of six, and Robert Higgins, 47, were both killed on Oct. 21, 2016, while they were helping to install a water and sewer pipe for an apartment building in South Boston. The workers drowned in a twelve-foot deep, un-shored trench, when the soil under a fire hydrant collapsed and the pipe supplying it broke. Both men were trapped by mud and debris and drowned when water filled the trench.
The company was charged with eighteen willful, repeat and serious violations of workplace safety standards and issued a fine of $1,475,813. The company owner, who was supervising the work when the trench collapsed, was criminally charged with manslaughter due to numerous willful violations of OSHA’s Subpart P Construction Safety Standards for Excavation and protective systems. Among the violations cited were failure to provide shoring or a trench box, lack of worker training, lack of a ladder to exit the trench, and not providing hardhats and safety glasses to the workers.
A review of the OSHA requirements yields the following safeguards which were required to have been in place for this work (Keep in mind this was a 12ft deep trench in an urban area.):
Each employee in an excavation shall be protected from cave-ins by an adequate protective system.
A means of egress (ladder) at least every 25 ft.
Atmosphere monitoring and ventilation if necessary.
Sidewalks, pavements, and appurtenant structure shall not be undermined unless a support system is provided to protect employees from the possible collapse of such structures.
Daily inspections by a competent person
Applicable PPE
Subsequently, the owner’s defense lawyers filed doctored training sign-in sheets in an attempt to “prove” that the workers deliberately ignored safety rules. The fraudulent records were not accepted into evidence.
The OSHA excavation safety standard was published in 1989, and the hazards of working in unprotected trenches are well documented and known to most companies and workers in the construction industry, and yet accidents and injuries continue happening in trenches. There were more trench fatalities in 2016 than in 2014 and 2015 combined!
Although the most serious and potentially fatal incidents involve trench cave-ins and engulfment by loose material, there are numerous other hazards that can cause injury. Falls in and around trenches and excavations can cause broken bones and impalement. Falling debris or overhead loads, atmospheric hazards and adjacent mobile equipment can also injure construction workers and tradesmen.
Work sites involving trenching and excavation tend to be dynamic, quickly changing operations where hazard recognition and control requires continuous attention. This explains how many accidents occur since the “work-as-planned” rarely matches the “work-as-it is-really-done” as the job evolves. Encountering unstable soils, having to dig deeper to locate utilities, using obsolete or inaccurate drawings, etc. can radically alter the scope of work in the field. When this happens, well trained employees, lead workers and superintendents need to step back and draw on the basic principles of trench safety: Are we digging deeper than 5 feet? Is the soil stable? Do we need shoring or a trench box? Is the shoring/protective device adequate? Do workers have adequate means of egress? Is the spoils pile far enough away from the edge of the trench, is it a hazard? What other hazards are in and around the excavation or might develop over time?
The truly “competent person” will make decisions based not just on getting the work done, but on how to get the work done Safely.
