At 3:41 p.m. on April 29, 2020, at a construction site in Frisco, Texas, a construction worker was injured as a result of a trench collapse. Firefighters quickly arrived at the industrial accident scene, which was located near the intersection of Gloryview Road and Teel Parkway. Co-workers had already managed to remove the injured worker from the collapsed portion of the trench before emergency services arrived. The firefighters provided medical treatment and the department’s technical rescue team used a Stokes Basket to remove the injured construction worker from the trench at 4:16 p.m. The injured worker suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a nearby hospital by the fire department. The incident is under investigation, and no further details have been released, including the name of the employer.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will likely do an inspection to evaluate whether or not the employer of the injured worker had taken appropriate safety measures before the construction trench accident occurred. If OSHA’s inspectors find alleged safety violations, citations and proposed penalties will be imposed
Back in 2002, OSHA fined an excavating company located in Frisco, Texas, for two trenching violations. The name of that company is Rodman Underground Inc. An inspection began at a McKinney, Texas, construction site on April 23, 2002, after which Rodman Underground was cited for one alleged willful and two alleged serious violations.
Failure to protect workers from the dangers of a cave-in while working at the base of a 9-foot-deep trench was the alleged willful violation. A plain indifference to or intentional disregard of safety requirements that protect workers is the general definition of a willful violation.
OSHA defines serious violations as dangers that could cause serious physical harm or death to employees and the employer should have known about the Texas workplace hazard or was aware of the danger. The two alleged serious violations were:
- A failure to provide workers with a safe way to get out of the trench and
- Failure to place excavated material a minimum of 2 feet away from the edge of the trench.
The total proposed penalties the Frisco, Texas, excavation company faced at that time was $56,000.
Trench injuries and fatalities are alarmingly common. In this ongoing series, learn about more trench collapse injuries that have occurred in Texas as well as some of the trench-related fatalities recorded in OSHA reports.
–Guest Contributor
