The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration has imposed $250,272 in penalties on a Texas construction company it found exposed workers to deadly hazards after a trench collapse caused the death of two workers.
WBW Construction LLC, of Georgetown, Texas, has also been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program for allowing workers to install sewer lines into a 23-foot deep, unprotected trench June 28 at a residential construction site in Jarrell, Texas, a news release said.
“WBW Construction LLC willfully sent these workers into an unprotected trench and ignored federal safety requirements,” OSHA Area Director Casey Perkins said in the release. “Now, two workers’ families, friends and co-workers are left to grieve their tragic, and avoidable, deaths.”
WBW Construction didn’t follow workplace safety standards by having a trench protective system or providing an exit point, the release reported. Additionally, citations were issued for not using ladders as designed, failing to have frequent work site inspections, not removing water from the trench and failing to provide workers with first aid training.
"Incidents like this can be prevented by following proven and well-known methods to protect workers from the deadly hazards in trenching and excavation work," Perkins said in the release.
Thirty-five workers died in trenching and excavation work through the end of November 2022, the release said. Trench collapses caused the death of 166 workers between 2011 and 2018.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing a sudden increase in the number of workers dying in trench and excavation collapses,” Perkins said in the release. “OSHA has a National Emphasis Program in place to alert employers and workers of the dangers, and to hold violators accountable. We also encourage anyone who sees workers in an unsafe trench to help us save lives by reporting the hazardous situation.”
