The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday it cited a Connecticut construction contractor after a worker was killed in a December 2023 trench collapse.
OSHA cited Easton-based Sound Construction Inc. for two “willful” and five “serious” violations and proposed $394,083 in penalties.
The employee had been repairing an underground water line in New Canaan.
OSHA said Sound Construction failed to provide cave-in protection, failed to train employees on how to recognize and avoid trenching hazards, failed to ensure an excavator was kept more than two feet from the trench’s edge, and failed to verify the location of underground utilities prior to excavation.
Sound Construction, which had been cited for similar violations in 2016, has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.