A Cheney, Kansas-based plumbing company is facing $334,000 in fines after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that it exposed its workers to deadly hazards following an ordeal in which two workers were buried in a trench collapse in January.
While the two workers were rescued, OSHA says Precision Plumbing LLC is guilty of failing to curtail “one of the construction industry’s most serious hazards.” OSHA says it investigated the deaths of 39 workers in trench collapses in 2022 and now has in place a national emphasis program on trenching and excavations.
OSHA inspectors determined the trench at a municipal worksite in Salinas, Kansas, had no protection against cave-ins and the employer allowed soil piles and equipment within two feet of the excavation’s edge.
OSHA also classified the company’s violations of these federal trench safety regulations as “willful,” as inspectors learned that a superintendent with the site’s general contractor, Multicon Inc. — a Wichita, Kansas-based construction company that was also fined $14,063 — had identified the trench collapse hazards to the Precision Plumbing foreman but left the site before making certain the subcontractor corrected the hazard, according to OSHA.