Trench-related fatalities leads to new agreement
- OSHA reached a two-year agreement with the Partners for Safe Trenching and Excavation Operations Alliance to make some of the construction industry’s most hazardous work safer.
- Thirty-nine American workers died in trench collapses in 2022 and that’s nearly double the annual average of such deaths between 2011-2021. according to the agency.
- This latest agreement unites the North American Excavation Shoring Association, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, the National Utility Contractors Association, the Associated General Contractors, the Common Ground Alliance, the International Union of Operating Engineers, and the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
- The alliance will help small- and medium-sized employers protect workers from hazards related to trenching, excavation and shoring.
Read more
New OSHA rule clears hurdle
- A rule that would require certain employers to submit injury and illness data to OSHA has cleared final review at the White House budget office.
- The proposed rule would require employers with 100 or more workers in the most hazardous industries to submit additional injury and illness records to the agency.
- Those industries include food production, manufacturing, health care, retail, warehousing, transportation, and the performing arts.
- If similar to the proposed version, the final rule would also end a requirement for companies with 250 or more employees.
Read more
Kansas plumbing company feels OSHA’s wrath
- A plumbing company in Cheney, Kansas, is facing $334,000 in fines after the OSHA found that it exposed its workers to deadly hazards following an ordeal in which two workers were buried in a trench collapse.
- 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.
Read more
More challenges for construction-related deaths
- After a worker died on an Indiana construction site last week after being crushed, it underscored the risks construction workers face as the industry’s nationwide rate of work fatalities remains high.
- Sherry Gentry, 52, was crushed by a dump truck while working as a flagger, directing traffic around road construction.
- She died shortly after despite EMS attempts to resuscitate her and the local sheriff’s Office and state police are investigating.
- Experts and advocates claim the construction industry’s death rate is so high including the lack of unions, lax worker training or government inspections, and regulations based that are based on weak evidence or are poorly implemented.
Read more