Properly shoring trenches require a lot of extra room, time and money on job sites. Because of that, many contractors try to cut corners and skip the shoring, but doing so can have fatal consequences. We recently wrote about trench safety and a neat tool that makes it very easy, which you can find here.
Back in January of 2012, 36 year old day laborer, Raul Zapata, was installing a concrete foundation at a residential construction site in California. The 12 foot deep trench collapsed, burying him alive. Rescue workers could not get to the site quick enough and he died on the scene.
The fact that Zapata’s employer, US Sino Investment, ignored trench safety and ended up resulting in a death is a tragedy. Even more of a tragedy is the fact that just 3 days prior, a Milipitas, California building inspector had the site shut down due to improper shoring on the very save excavation. Not only did the employer fail to provide a safe work environment to begin with, it also ignored safety after they were called out by the building inspector. That’s negligence and it should never be tolerated.
Cal/OSHA, a division of Department of Industrial Relations, takes employer negligence very seriously, stating, “When our investigations uncover negligent behavior by employers, we exercise our full jurisdiction to protect workers – including referrals to district attorneys for prosecution."
During their investigation after the death, Cal/OSHA determined that, at the time of the accident:
- No employees were wearing head protection
- The excavation had not been properly shored
- The employer did not have a competent person on site to make sure shoring was correct
- The employer did not have workers’ compensation insurance
In total, US Sino Investment, was penalized $168,175 in citations. Last Friday, Cal/OSHA’s criminal investigation of US Sino Investment owner Richard Liu and Project Manager Dan Luo were responsible for the death and were sentenced to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
It’s a sobering thought knowing that owners and project managers can be sentenced to prison for accidents on the job site, that’s why it’s so important to create a culture of safety within the entire company.
Cal/OSHA Criminal Investigation of Worker’s Death Results in Prison Term for Construction Company Owner and Project Manager | Department of Industrial Relations
Construction Safety is talked about constantly. There are many construction companies that take it very seriously. There are also many that don’t. All will say it’s their top priority.
So what can a city do that’s facing regular worker deaths and increases in workplace injuries? New York City has decided to require extensive safety training for all of the 185,000 construction workers in the city.
According to the Workzonesafety.com, nearly half (46%) of all work zone-associated worker fatalities from 2003-2010 were caused by being struck by a vehicle. Surprisingly, only around 2% of those workers were killed by a drunk driver. From 2003 to 2015 (the last year this data was updated), a total of 1324 work zone fatalities have been recorded, which averages to about 102 per year.
Residents living near a Jersey City, New Jersey construction site were frightened as they watched “explosions” of smoke coming out of holes in the ground.
Portable toilets are the setting for many pranks around a construction site, but I never thought there could be something worse than just getting stuck in one. Turns out I was extremely wrong, because a worker in New Orleans was run over by a dump truck while using the port-a-john.
At last week’s National Safety Council Congress & Expo, OSHA’s deputy director of Directorare of Enforcement Programs, Patrick Kapust, announced their 10 most frequesntly cited safety violations for their fiscal year 2017, reports the National Safety Council.
As we saw after the Lake Oroville Dam in California collapsed earlier this year, dam failures can have sudden and devastating effects. Recent footage showing raging muddy waters swallowing a construction site in a matter of seconds has been shared after river dam in Thatom, Loas failed.
On Saturday, September 23, OSHA’s much talked about and controversial new Silica Dust Exposure Limit regulations went into effect. Late last week, the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of OSHA, Thomas Galassi, released a memorandum that issues a 30 day “grace period” for compliance.
[guest post] Working in construction certainly has its upsides - you get in a great workout, you learn valuable skills, and you develop incredible camaraderie on the jobsite. However, it also is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have.
Hurricane Irma ripped through the Caribbean and landed in South Florida a little over a week ago, sadly killing at least 50 people in Florida and causing plenty of property damage. High winds that accompanied the storm also caused the collapse of 3 construction cranes – two in Miami and one more in Fort Lauderdale. The crane in Fort Lauderdale was recently dismantled and the action was caught on video.
Video feeds on a construction site are not only great for timelapse videos, they can potentially help stop intruders who enter your site.