OSHA CAVE-IN FINDING:

A Franklin, New Hampshire contractor faces $50,750 in fines from the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for allegedly failing to supply cave-in protection at a Boscawen jobsite. OSHA cited R.D. Edmunds & Sons Inc. following an inspection of a sewer line excavation on Tremont St. where, on Sept. 26, an OSHA inspector observed an employee working in a six to seven-foot deep trench that lacked cave-in protection. The inspection also found that sections of the excavation wall had begun to pull away and had not been scaled off to prevent loose soil from dropping into the excavation. OSHA standards require that all excavations five feet or deeper be protected against collapse before employees work inside them. “The walls of an unprotected excavation can collapse suddenly and with great force, stunning and burying workers beneath tons of soil and debris before they have a chance to react or escape,” said Rosemarie Ohar, OSHA’s area director. “Protection can be provided by shoring the trench’s sidewalls, sloping the soil at a shallow angle or by use of a protective trenchbox; none of these protections were in use at the time of the inspection.”

Topics Workers' Compensation