A trench collapse that killed an 18-year-old worker near Houston, Texas, has led to a proposed penalty of $257,811 for the teen’s employer who has a long history of safety violations, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration.
OSHA cited water, sewer and drainage contractor Hurtado Construction Company, headquartered in Richmond, Texas, with a willful violation of inadequate cave-in protection and seven other violations related to the incident.
On September 15, the teen was working in a 15-foot-deep trench near Fulshear when a trench wall collapsed. The teen was inside a reinforced-concrete box that was being used as cave-in protection. However, the box was not being used according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The box was not installed flush with the walls of the trench, which allowed hazardous movement of the box, OSHA reports.
The teen was pinned up against the box’s wall by tons of dirt, dying of his injuries, according to OSHA.
Along with citations related to inadequate cave-in protection, OSHA also issued violations for:
“Hurtado Construction has routinely ignored its legal responsibility to protect employees’ safety and health,” said OSHA Area Director Larissa Ipsen in Houston. “The company’s callous disregard has cost a young man his life and left his family, friends and co-workers to grieve a terrible tragedy under circumstances that were completely preventable.”
This was not Hurtado’s first trench violation or employee fatality, according to previous OSHA records. An OSHA news release on the latest violations said Hurtado has a “continuing a history of workplace safety failures that includes eight OSHA citations for not providing required protective systems after another worker fatality in January 2007.”
