A Kansas plumbing contractor is facing a six-figure penalty from the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration after two employees narrowly escaped death in a trench collapse.
OSHA's investigation of the incident led the agency to issue Precision Plumbing LLC. of Cheney, Kansas, two willful and six serious violations with proposed penalties of $333,949.
The general contractor on the project, Multicon Inc. of Wichita, Kansas, also faces a $14,063 penalty from OSHA for failing to protect employees from cave-in and engulfment hazards.
On Jan. 6, 2023, just before 5 p.m., a Precision Plumbing worker was in a 9-foot trench in Salina, Kansas, near Salina South High School, connecting a plumbing line to the municipal sewer line.
Working in the trench, he was exposed to a potential drowning hazard, one of the multiple alleged violations, because it was an active, unsupported 8-inch pressurized water line.
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Per the investigation, OSHA alleges that Precision Plumbing failed to protect its employees from struck-by and collapse hazards associated with trench work. While working in the trench, the employees were allowed to stand underneath an excavator bucket while removing and carrying soil without wearing hard hats.
