Posts Tagged ‘trenches’

Near-miss trench collapse in dramatic video

Monday, September 14th, 2015

OSHA inspectors were on the scene at a construction project with a 21 foot trench. The on-site inspector was issuing a warning that no workers should be in the trench since there was no shoring. No sooner did he say the words when the trench collapsed, narrowly missing a worker.

We came across this clip courtesy of a post by Fred Hosier at Safety News Alert:
Viral video: Partial trench collapse narrowly misses worker. Fred explained that it’s not a new video:

“Oregon OSHA had been making this video taken by one of its inspectors available for training purposes for a few years. After being posted recently on Facebook, the video has now received almost 1 million views.”

We’re glad that this clip is attracting attention – it may save lives. But it doesn’t need to be a 21 foot trench to claim a life — it could be as little as 6 feet: Read Eric Giguere’s gripping story of 10 minutes buried alive.

Related posts:

“An unprotected trench is an open grave”

It’s spring … and the start of trench death season

Tags: , ,
Posted in Safety & Health, Videos | No Comments »

Ten Minutes Buried Alive

Wednesday, October 31st, 2012

At the recent National Safety Council Congress and Expo in Florida, Eric Guigere shared the gripping account of how 10 minutes in the bottom of a trench changed his life. In 2002, he was 27 years old and newly married – and perhaps in a bit of a hurry because he was scheduled to fly to a Caribbean honeymoon after work. But all that changed in an instant when he found himself buried in a trench collapse. He describes the harrowing experience before he blacked out – one of mankind’s most deep-seated and primal fears becoming a reality. His coworkers pulled his lifeless body from the trench about 10 minutes later. At the time, his survival was in doubt, but he not only lived, he walked out of the hospital within about a week.

But that was not the end of things, by any means. Guigere talks about the lingering effects that the trauma had on his life – night terrors, lack of sleep, stress, and general PTSD experiences that eventually led to the break-up of his marriage. He also talks about the terrible effects that the experience had on his coworkers.

Guigere takes full responsibility for his own actions. His message is to the workers: “Don’t take shortcuts. Respect safety requirements. Don’t make a choice that could put yourself, your coworkers and your family in life-altering situations.”

We aren’t as inclined to let the employer off the hook as lightly as he does. The employer had six prior OSHA citations for safety violations and deceitfully tried to cover up their lack of compliance after the accident. The employer incurred a $54,000 wilful violation from this offense. While we’re big believers in behavior-based safety, we think that all parties have responsibilities in creating an injury-free workplace. James Loud raises this point in his essay Too much emphasis on behavior-based safety? We agree with his assertion that “safety is a line management responsibility” and his prescription of management walkarounds, which he describes as “routine manager/employee safety interactions.” He offers a roster of best practice “rules” for safety walkarounds gleaned from his 20 years of studying such programs at large organizations.

Eric Guigere now makes his living as a safety motivational speaker – you can see a brief clip below. If you’re looking for a motivational speaker to talk to your employees, his story appears compelling.

Related prior posts:

Tags: ,
Posted in Safety & Health | 1 Comment »

“An unprotected trench is an open grave”

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

A little more than a week ago, family members and coworkers watched helplessly as 39-year old Raul Zapata was buried alive when a wall of dirt fell on him at a residential construction worksite in Milpitas, California. Zapata was working in a 12-foot deep ditch, the foundation of a 5,800 square foot home in a gated community. The cave in was extensive enough that it took two days to rescue his body. Zapata and his coworkers should not have been working at all that day because three days prior, the city had issued a stop work order to the construction company, U.S. Sino Investments Inc. The order was issued after a city building inspector determined that the ditch was a safety hazard due to a lack of adequate shoring to prevent a cave-in.

To add insult to injury, the employer did not have workers’ comp insurance. They also lacked a permit, a state requirement for any projects deeper than five feet. In a case of closing the barn door, the Contractors State License Board has since suspended U.S.-Sino Investment’s general building contractor license for this failure. The flouting of the stop work order, the failure to get a trenching permit and the failure to carry workers comp coverage – these are not unsurprising accompaniments to trenching fatalities. Fatalities are often preceded by multiple citations or warnings and violators are often serial violators. It’s not uncommon for OSHA to issue mulitple “willful” citations related to trenching failures. OSHA defines a willful violation as one “committed with an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to” OSHA requirements, the highest level of citation, carrying fines of $5,000 to $70,000 per incident.

Two workers a month are buried alive in trench collapses. Most of these tragedies are avoidable simply by following OSHA standards, which mandate that all excavations 5 feet or deeper be protected against collapse. It’s a stroke of luck that no other workers were killed at the Milpitas site – it’s not uncommon for rescuers to rush to the aid of a victim and become entrapped themselves when an a secondary collapse occurs. Trench rescues require speed, precision, and expertise.

To help curtail fatalities that OSHA describes as “entirely preventable,” in October they released new trenching safety guidance, including the following safety materials:
Fact sheet: Trenching and Excavation (PDF)
Quick Card: Working Safely in Trenches (PDF)
Poster: An unprotected trench is an early grave (PDF)
OSHA – Confined Space

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Safety & Health | Comments Off on “An unprotected trench is an open grave”

Buried alive

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

What could be more horrifying than the idea of being buried alive? It’s the stuff of nightmares. novels, and scary movies, tapping into one of our most primal fears. Yet unfortunately, buried alive is not just the stuff of fiction. Every year, it’s the same old story – collapsing trenches kill workers at both commercial and residential work sites. Deaths are sometimes caused by asphyxiation or drowning when trenches fill with soil or water. It’s also quite common for workers to die from being crushed by the sheer weight of the soil – which can exert pressure of more than two tons per cubic foot of dirt. Sometimes, workers are alive and talking while they are being rescued only to die during or shortly after the rescue, succumbing to injuries from the sheer pressure of the weight, which compresses the chest and cuts off oxygen to muscles and extremities.

News reports often focus on desperate rescue efforts with co-workers and emergency crews frantically digging to free a trapped colleague – yet many of the deaths happen when workers jump in an unsecured trench to try to save a colleague and a secondary collapse occurs. Trench rescues require speed and expertise – trained rescue workers understand the risks to both the endangered worker and to rescue workers. Before a rescue can safely occur, the site must be secured – something that should have happened before the collapse. Time is critical because even when a worker’s head or upper torso is visible, irreversible crushing injuries can occur in less than 10 minutes.

These are immensely frustrating deaths because they are preventable with proper safety precautions – but all too often, time and budget trump safety. Breathless news coverage often refers to the accidents as freak events but that implies that the event couldn’t have been anticipated or prevented. Unfortunately, there is nothing unusual about the collapse of an unsecured trench – without proper safety precautions, any excavation over 5 feet which is deeper than it is wide is a problem waiting to happen.

Workplace trench safety: Related resources and postings

OSHA – Trenching and Excavation
OSHA Trench Safety Quick Card (PDF)
OSHA Confined Spaces
Excavations: A guide to safe work practices – 20 minute video clip from WorkSafeBC
Trench safety publications and information

Call Before You Dig – resources for nonprofessionals

In addition to being at risk for trench collapses, the do-it-yourself who tackles home improvement projects may face electrocution and other risks when digging is involved. A new, federally-mandated national Call Before You Dig 811 number was created to help protect homeowners from unintentionally hitting underground utility lines while working on digging projects. In addition, each state has
different rules and regulations governing digging, some stricter than others – state-by-state requirements can also be found at the 811-dig link.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in State News | Comments Off on Buried alive

When Workers Die

Wednesday, December 24th, 2003

It is well worth the free registration at the New York Times to read the powerful three-part series entitled “When Workers Die.”
These articles raise the issue of an employer’s liability for willful neglect of safety procedures leading to a workplace death. They also make the case that OSHA has woefully failed in its mandate to protect workers by its reluctance to hold employers accountable for preventable deaths. Particularly egregious are the instances where there is little to no accountability for even those employers with serial fatalities. Are workplace deaths regarded as “fate” or “an accident” much in the way that auto deaths from drunken driving were once tolerated before prosecutions became the norm?
Increasingly, states are stepping in to hold employers accountable, most notably in California. Part three of the series examines the impact that one employer prosecution has had in raising safety awareness in the state’s dairy industry.
Part 1: A Trench Caves In; a Young Worker Is Dead. Is It a Crime?
Part 2: U.S. Rarely Seeks Charges for Deaths in Workplace
Part 3: California Leads in Making Employer Pay for Job Deaths
Access all three parts and related links.

Other related resources
OSHA: Trenching and Excavation
OSHA: Confined Spaces

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Safety & Health | Comments Off on When Workers Die