A Connecticut construction site supervisor has been indicted on a charge of felony criminally negligent homicide for the death of a worker in a trench collapse in New York in 2021.
Michael Conway, 59, director of project development for Lecher Development LLC, was also indicted on two misdemeanor charges of second-degree reckless endangerment, according to the Westchester County District Attorney.
The charges stem from the death of Jose Vega, 46, who was working in a 9-foot-deep trench around 12:30 p.m. May 4, 2021, in the Village of Mamaroneck, New York, when it collapsed and buried him.
Conway, as the site supervisor, “directed two workers to dig a trench without proper shoring or cave-in protections in place,” according to a news release from the D.A.’s office.
The trench was dug behind a house under construction and had accumulated water in it, according to investigative reports by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Spoil piles were on the edge of the trench, and there was no safe means for entrance or exit from the trench. OSHA also determined that daily inspections by a competent person had not been performed before workers entered the trench and that workers had not been trained on trench safety.
Conway’s employer, Lecher Development of Norwalk, Connecticut, was cited by OSHA for one willful and four serious violations and was issued final penalties totaling $30,060.
Mickels Landscape Inc. of Darien, Connecticut, was cited for a repeat violation of not providing safe means of entrance and exit from a trench, as well as five serious violations similar to those issued to Lecher. In all, the company paid final penalties totaling $40,000. Mickels had previously paid a penalty of $1,619 in 2020 for failure to provide a safe way to enter or exit a trench on a construction site in 2019 in Norwalk, Connecticut, according to OSHA.
