Ew0618 combined

equipmentworld.com | June 2018

®

SPECIAL REPORT:

DEATH BY

TRENCH Trench collapses take lives, devastate families and ruin businesses.

Here’s how to prevent them.

P. 11

Vol. 30 Number 6 |

Cover Story

table of contents |

June 2018

SPECIAL REPORT:

DEATHBYTRENCH 11

EXAMINING THE HUMAN SIDE OF P. TRENCH FATALITY STATISTICS 12 BURIED ALIVE IN BLUE EARTH COUNTY How one contractor’s missteps took one life, shattered others and ruined his business.

19 NOT SO GREAT ESCAPE Trench-collapse survivors live with fear, disabilities and recriminations.

26 IMMEASURABLE LOSS Families find few answers to “why?”

33 PROSECUTORS TAKING NOTICE Expect more criminal charges in trench deaths.

44 FIRST ON THE SCENE Trench rescues are methodical, labor intensive and often unsuccessful.

51 OSHA INVESTIGATES What to expect when the compliance officer arrives.

53 7 WAYS TO DIG AN EARLY GRAVE These missteps can lead to tragedyin the trench.

54 TRENCH PROTECTION Big mission, big business

EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 3

table of contents | continued

Features 61 Contractor of the Year Finalist Clem Cooke, Fritz-Rumer-Cooke, Columbus, Ohio

®

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Beyond the statistics

74 Final Word

Safety culture or paperwork culture?

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on record | by Marcia Gruver Doyle MGruver@randallreilly.com

Beyond the statistics “I

’d like to tell you about my father.”

Equipment World had posted a short website story about 47-year-old Alfredo Garcia, who died in a trench collapse in November of 2015. Jesus Garcia, his son, had a simple request when he called me: just listen to his father’s story.

After our conversation, I started tracking trench-collapse deaths and found that Alfredo was not an anomaly. By our calculations, in the past two years, 51 people died because they were working in an unprotected trench.

That’s a much better number than during the 1990-2000 time period, when OSHA calculated an average of 70 trench fatalities per year. But back then, OSHA’s Subpart P excavation regulations, enacted in 1989, were still relatively new.

That was then, this is 2018. These regulations are now in their 29th year.

Yet the deaths continue even though the industry has known for decades how to protect workers in trenches. As I reviewed OSHA records on these fatal incidents, I found a stark lack of knowledge about even basic trench protection rules.

“Nobody ever talked to me about the hazards of working in a trench,” said one co-worker interviewed after a fatality. A company owner told an OSHA inspector that he was “not aware of the OSHA standard covering trenching and excavating.” In one report, the exca-

vation company did not even have a trenching section in its safety manual.

And then there’s the response of a company’s safety director after a coworker’s death. Asked if he knew what a trench box was used for, he replied: “I do now.”

Beyond the broader picture, though, are the personal blows, as Jesus Garcia explained to me. In losing Alfredo, his family lost its anchor, a man who prodded his children to excel.

Construction for many is a family business. In the past two years, two fathers have watched their sons die in a trench.

An uncle survived a trench cave-in while his nephew did not. Two brothers were in a trench together when it collapsed; only one made it out alive.

We also found that dirt doesn’t care where you are on the organizational chart: four company owners died in collapsed trenches in 2016 and 2017.

The National Utility Contractors Association is holding its third annual Trench Safety Stand Down this month. They ask you to join them with a simple task: take the time to review trench safety with your crews. Communicate how important it is that everyone gets out of each trench alive. Tell them they can refuse to get into any hole they consider unsafe.

It’s worth doing. Just ask one of the family members, co-workers, survivors or first responders you’ll meet in the following pages.

EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 7

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Because utility vehicles move people and material more efficiently – and at a lower operating cost – than a truck, they are a more sustainable solution on the jobsite. Roger Gifford, product marketing manager for utility vehicles, Kubota, sees this as a substantial shift in the marketplace, and an exciting opportunity for contractors.

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Choosing functional features

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gear-box driven,” Gifford says.

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“Choosing the right machine to add to your fleet is essential to boosting your productivity and improving your bottom line,” Gifford says. “When you equip a utility vehicle with powered attachments, you put more strain on the unit itself, so it is essential the vehicle is engineered to handle the work.

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Photo by David Dow, TrenchSafety and Supply

SPECIAL REPORT:

DEATHBY

TRENCH

W

hen it comes to construction fatalities, trench deaths are easy to overlook. The number of deaths – 51 between 2016 and 2017 – falls far below the top four culprits of construction deaths: falls, electrocution, struck by object and caught-in/between.

But trench deaths are particularly distressing, as the victims often spend several minutes in agony before succumbing. Co-workers look on helplessly, or in trying a rescue, may also die. Families are forever haunted by the loss.

Most frustrating of all: every death could have been prevented, if the company had installed worker protection.

In this special report, Equipment World examines the human loss and business implications behind the statistics and what contractors and workers must do to prevent deaths by trench.

Table of Contents

12 Buried alive in Blue Earth County

26 Families find few answers to “why?” 51 What to expect when an How one contractor’s missteps took one life, 33 Expect more criminal charges in OSHA compliance officer shattered others and ruined his business. investigates trench deaths 19 Not so great escapes 53 How to dig an early grave 44 First on the scene Trench collapse survivors live with fear, Trench rescues are methodical, labor 54 Trench protection: Big disabilities and recriminations. mission, big business intensive and often unsuccessful.

EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 11

DEATH BY TRENCH

Buried alive IN Blue Earth County

How one contractor’s missteps took one life, shattered others and ruined his business.

This photograph, taken by a Minnesota OSHA investigator, shows how the 28-foot-deep trench appeared the day after it caved in.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 • Presented in chronological order, by victim, employer and parties cited by OSHA. 1/6/16 – Justin Dean (J. D.) Jorgensen, 30, JRS Excavating, St. Charles, IA • 1/26/16 – Harold Felton, 36, Alki Construction, Seattle, WA 12 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

F

rom 28 feet above him, Casey and fishing together. Erickson’s

by Joy Powell Rady heard his boss shout. mother and father became like “Get in the trench box!”

by Vortex owner Ryan Safranski second parents to Rady. His parents Fifteen feet above him, a long set the stage for catastrophe – an held the same role for Erickson. horizontal crack formed in the exavoidable cave-in that ended As teens, they worked at a local cavation wall. with the company’s demise and a car wash, spending their earnings “I glanced up to see what was go- 28-year-old decorated war veteran on four-wheelers and snowmobiles, ing on,” Rady recalls, “and I could buried alive. which they constantly had to fix. see pieces of it cracking, and it It was the last time Rady saw his Erickson was a motor head, always was like a whole shelf tinkering. started to come loose.”

Two years after Panic set in. “Which high school graduaway do we go?” he tion, Erickson joined recalls thinking. the Army. As a partStanding in 6 to 8 ing gift, he gave his inches of water, he analog Fossil watch to spotted an extra secRady before headtion of 4-foot-diameter ing to basic training plastic pipe floating in at Fort Sill, Oklathe trench box. homa. He went on He grabbed the to serve two tours sleeve of his childin Afghanistan as a hood friend and cocombat medic in the worker Dave Erickson 10th Mountain Diviand dragged him sion, earning a dozen toward the pipe, hopmedals and ribbons, ing to find protection including two Army from the ensuing colCommendation Medlapse. As he ducked to als. He was honorably enter the pipe, he lost discharged as a serhis grip on Erickson’s geant Nov. 19, 2014. sleeve.

After Erickson reRady looked back. turned to Ironwood, Erickson stood in the Rady helped him settrench box as if frotle into an apartment. zen, staring up at the Erickson still enjoyed collapsing wall. four-wheeling, and As the wall of dirt he rode motorcycles. caved in on them, so He loved to cook and did a large spoil pile was known for his David Erickson served two tours in Afghanistan as a combat that was less than 2 big smile. medic in the 10th Mountain Division, earning a dozen medals and feet from the edge of “He was probably ribbons, including two Army Commendation Medals. He began the excavation. The one of the biggest working for Vortex Drain Tiling in Fall 2015. closeness of the pile goofballs you’d ever was one of many meet,” Rady says. “Evsafety violations OSHA would cite best friend alive. erything was a joke, and I’m the Rady and Erickson’s employer, He was 7 or 8 years old when same way, so we got along great.

Vortex Drain Tiling, with followhe first met Erickson, who was two And anybody that was around us ing the June 13, 2016, collapse years younger. Soon, they were felt it; it just shed out. Everybody in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. playing Little League in the small was in a better mood because he Investigators said the lack of community of Ironwood on Michiwas there.” planning and safety precautions gan’s western edge and hunting Rady had been working for 2/13/16 – Mario Tejada Melchor, 20, Principal Services, Humble, TX • 3/1/16 – Aaron T. Pfannenstiel, 44, J Corporation, Hays, KS EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 13

Vortex Drain Tiling of for needed supplies, Grand Forks, North Rady says.

Dakota, for about six “We were supposed months. He offered to have silt fencing Erickson a full-time job up because of all the on his crew in the fall of rain and runoff,” Rady 2015, with plans to train says. “I was never him to become a heavy able to get that.” equipment operator.

The money prob“I promised his mom lems cropped up “on and dad that I would a day-to-day basis,” he keep him safe,” Rady adds. “I couldn’t get recalls. fuel. We couldn’t get In May 2016, Erickson motel rooms.” So Rady and Rady started work would charge motel on Blue Earth County rooms on his credit Ditch 28 near tiny card and sometimes Madelia, Minnesota. An get reimbursed, and old 36-inch steel drainhe’d pay for fuel. age pipe had collapsed, Erosion was another stopping the water flow problem, says Chuck and flooding farms. The Brandel, an agriculsmall Vortex crew was tural drainage expert installing new drain tile and president of ISG, and connecting two the engineering firm drainage ditches that hired by Blue Earth flowed to the Watonwan County for the projRiver. ect. The soil was so Dave Erickson (left) and longtime friend Adam Kennedy The new dual-wall non-cohesive it was take a riverside break near Madelia, Minnesota. They and polypropylene pipe like quicksand. During another lifelong friend, Casey Rady, grew up in Ironwood, was 48 inches in diamthe excavation, the Michigan, and worked together on excavating and drain tile eter and 3 inches thick. crew dug through two installation projects.

Vortex owner Safranski water tables. Even anticipated a November with two pumps runcompletion date for the project, some good seat time.” ning constantly, they often slogged which involved installing two miles Working 330 miles from Ironthrough 6 to 8 inches of water on of drain tile and reconnecting to wood, they roomed together at a the excavation bottom. existing pipe. motel in the Madelia area. SomeISG was also concerned about Erickson and Rady liked worktimes at night, they confided in spoil piles being placed too close ing in the countryside, away from each other. Erickson told Rady to the edge, Brandel says. But they traffic. about his post-traumatic stress dishad limited say over the work, ac“There’s a lot of days where it order since serving in Afghanistan, cording to Brandel. was so wet it was just him and where he stitched up the wound“We have to be careful not to tell me and dozers,” recalls Rady. ed, amputated limbs, comforted them, ‘Hey, you need to construct “He would be in a D7 and I’d be the dying. your trench this way.’ Because in a D9, and it’d just be fun, like Though the two friends found that’s their job, not our job,” he when we were four-wheeling. We peacefulness and even good times says. Telling a contractor how to had radios. We were getting work together on the jobsite, their days dig a trench could have made the done. I was showing him how to were often punctuated by probengineering firm liable if somerun equipment, and he was getting lems getting money from Safranski thing went wrong, he says.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 3/1/16 – James Lee (Jake) Jacobs, 66, J Corporation, Hays, KS • 3/21/16 – Jimmy Dale Spencer, 61, Clau-Chin Construction, Alliance, 14 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

And then when the dirt started falling on me, my head was underwater and you could still hear dirt falling. You’d feel sand and water in your ears and your nose. I just thought that was the last thing that I was ever going to hear.

Minnesota OSHA said the spoil piles were on the edge of the excavation, leaving no distinction between them and the excavation walls.

Having the spoil pile too close isn’t only a worry because dirt can fall in, but also because the weight can put additional pressure on the walls, which can cause them to cave in, explains James Krueger, director of Workplace Safety Programs for Minnesota OSHA. “That’s why you have to have it 2 feet back,” he says, “or you have to have some type of structure to keep those employees safe.”

Safranski did not use a protective system designed by a professional engineer, as OSHA standards require in an excavation that deep, Krueger notes.

Vortex did have some protection with trench boxes, but it was inadequate and improperly used, OSHA determined. For about a week, Vortex used a 10-foot-tall trench box with an 8-foot-tall trench box stacked on top. But as the weight of the soil increased on the boxes, it became more difficult to move them as the digging progressed. Rather than dismantle the boxes and stack them again, the top trench box was removed and set aside, Rady said.

They removed about a bucketwidth of dirt from alongside the remaining 20-foot-long trench box, filled that area with rock about halfway up to the pipe, and then compacted the rock. They did that,

”

– Casey Rady Rady says, because they could move the trench box through the rock easier than through dirt.

The ground in the area also might have been disturbed 35 years ago when the original drainage pipe was installed. The engineering plan shows that the new 48-inch drain tile would intersect at points with the 36-inch tile installed in 1981. Rady says that knowledge could have made a difference in how they handled the excavation because of the greater potential for unstable soil and cave-in due to the previously disturbed dirt.

“There was another trench there and they very well could have intersected it, and that could have been softer soil or it could have been less compacted soil,” Brandel confirms. “Yeah, they should have been aware of that. That potential was there because there were instances on our plans where we did cross the original trenches.”

Brandel says that information was in the plan given to the contractor. But Rady says Safranski never passed that on to him.

Safranski could not be reached for comment for this story.

“All I could see was his knee” On Friday, June 10, 2016, Safranski and crew dug out the latest phase of the excavation. It began to rain, so they knocked off at 3 p.m.

It rained hard all weekend, so they didn’t return to the jobsite until 1 p.m. the following Monday.

Six inches of rain had collected in the excavation bottom. Though water in an excavation can undermine its sides, Safranski did not take adequate precautions to protect his workers, OSHA said.

He also did not provide a ladder or any other safe means of entering and exiting the excavation, according to the agency. Rady said it was easier to scramble up the dirt incline than to keep moving a ladder and setting it up in water.

Operating an excavator that day, Safranski hoisted a 20-foot section of new pipe into the excavation.

He realized the pipe was pierced, then entered the excavation to help Erickson and Rady remove the damaged section and re-secure the remaining section to a second pipe that was already placed on grade at the bottom of the excavation.

They cut out the damaged 2-foot section of drain tile using a Sawzall and installed a coupler underneath to connect the two good pipes.

Erickson and Rady began shoveling rock to even the grade. It was tough going, so they took turns shoveling. Safranski moved to higher ground.

It was then they noticed the west side of the excavation “oozing slowly like a liquid,” the OSHA report says.

Dirt began falling in and around the south end of the trench box.

Rady had made it to the damaged pipe section to seek safety. He’s not sure, but Rady thinks Erickson may have shoved him into the

NE; Larry Kessler Construction, Scottsbluff, NE • 3/29/16 – Alexander J. Marcotte, 28, Aqua Ohio, Boardman, OH EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 15

pipe a moment before Brennan called Rady the avalanche. out of the excavation for “When I went to lean safety reasons. forward and jump in, my “I was still down there hand slipped from him, with a damn shovel and and that’s when everymini excavator trying to thing hit, and I could hear dig and dig,” Rady says. what sounded like an “They pulled me out of earthquake,” Rady says. that equipment because I He saw Erickson standdidn’t want to quit. I just ing motionless until he wanted him out… and was hit by the falling soil it took a sheriff’s deputy and disappeared under and somebody else to the water and dirt. pretty much pull me out “When it hit the side of of the excavator.” the trench box, it sounded The operation was like thunder,” Rady says. put on hold until the “And then when the dirt Mankato Fire Confined started falling on me, my Space Rescue Team head was underwater arrived from 23 miles and you could still hear away. Trained in trench dirt falling. You’d feel rescues, team members sand and water in your knew they first had to ears and your nose. I just stabilize the excavation. thought that was the last Authorities arranged for thing that I was ever gofive construction coming to hear.” panies and the city of Rady thought he’d never Mankato to bring in exsee his 5-year-old son cavators and other heavy again. He prayed. When equipment and operators the collapse subsided, he to make conditions safer.

Dave Erickson signed on with Vortex Drain Tiling about crawled out of the pipe.

They used a trash pump nine months before his death. In this photo taken on Oct. 1, “I looked for Dave – all to try to stay ahead of 2015, he’s on a project in Herman, which is in Grant County, I could see was his knee,” the water that continued Minnesota. he recalls. to flow in.

Rady fled from the By 8 p.m., the Mankato trench box until the avalanche had cuers to arrive. They initially could team could enter the trench box. completely stopped. see Erickson’s foot, they told Blue They soon located Erickson’s body Then, desperate to save his Earth County sheriff’s Lt. Jeremy under 3 feet of water, partially covfriend, he rushed back and clawed Brennan. But as soil continued to ered by soil. at the soil, ripping off his fingerfall around the trench box and waThe responders freed Erickson’s nails as he dug. Safranski scrabter entered, even that small sign of body at 8:15 p.m., more than five bled through the dirt and water Erickson disappeared. hours after the collapse. to help, but they couldn’t move “The trench box had approxiAs he sat outside the hotel, Rady a heavy chunk of dirt that had mately 3 to 4 feet of water, along saw the ambulance bearing Erickson’s fallen on Erickson. Other workers with soil that had fallen off of the body as it headed to a mortuary. rushed to help. sides and filled in around the south “When they came over the overMuddy water began to rise, subside of the trench box,” Brennan pass, I was sitting outside the motel merging Erickson. wrote in his report. because nobody really wanted me Madelia ambulance and volunteer Conditions were too hazardous for there when they pulled him out,” firefighters were among the first res- rescue workers to enter the excavation. recalls Rady, who had been highly Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 5/3/16 – Ernesto Saucedo-Zapada, 26, Hard Rock Construction, Meridian, ID • 5/3/16 – Bert Smith Jr., 36, Hard Rock Construction, 16 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

I keep thinking about what he must have gone through that day. ”

emotional at the scene. “I wanted to remember him in a better way.”

Months after promising to keep their son safe, Rady had to call Erickson’s parents to tell them about the tragedy.

The next day, as Rady drove Erickson’s truck and belongings back to Ironwood to deliver them to his parents, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy.

Medical examiners determined that Erickson died of asphyxia due to chest compression and that the water that submerged him did not play a role in his death.

It was a death that could have been prevented, experts say.

The fatality was primarily due to a contractor’s lack of foresight and no protective system designed by an engineer for an excavation deeper than 20 feet, says Krueger, with Minnesota OSHA. “It’s all about the preplanning and thinking what you’re going to do before you begin that work,” Krueger says. “And that’s really how you want to prevent these types of accidents and injuries from occurring.”

After its investigation of the collapse, Minnesota OSHA cited Safranski, owner of Vortex Drain Tiling, with eight serious violations and fined him $104,375.

Six months after the cave-in, Safranski declared bankruptcy and liquidated his company. The fines have not been paid.

“A hole in my heart” Services for Erickson were held

– Mary Ann Erickson

June 28, 2016, at Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in Ironwood. Rady was a pallbearer, along with Army sergeants who had served with Erickson. There were full military honors at Riverside Cemetery.

“The loss is so great,” says Erickson’s mother, Mary Ann, her voice breaking. “There’s a hole in my heart that will never be filled. It devastates the family.”

Both Rady and Erickson’s family think often of how Erickson survived battles in the deserts of Afghanistan, only to die in a muddy

Dave Erickson of Ironwood, Michigan, survived combat in Afghanistan, where he was a decorated medic, only to die in a Minnesota field after an excavation caved in during a drain tile project.

field in Minnesota.

“You worry about him over there twice,” says Mary Ann Erickson of her son’s two combat tours, “and then he comes home, and you think you don’t have to worry anymore. And then this happens.

“I keep thinking about what he must have gone through that day.”

She wants her son’s story to be told.

“Maybe it will help contractors think about the safety involved for these workers and maybe they’ll figure out a way of protecting them a little more than this one did,” she says. “I don’t want another parent to go through what we’re going through.”

Following the collapse, Rady has undergone therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder through a workers’ compensation program.

He grapples with nightmares and other after-effects.

“I’m deathly afraid of heights or anything to do with an edge or having to look down into a trench,” he says. “I have panic attacks.”

Rady cherishes the Fossil watch Erickson gave him before heading to basic training. It’s so scratched that Rady can barely see the hands.

“I still have it, I’m wearing it right now,” he says. “I’ve put maybe 10 batteries in it and had a bunch of work done on it, but I would never get rid of that watch.”

For him, the watch isn’t just for telling time. It’s a reminder of his friend and happier times.

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DEATH BY TRENCH

Not so great escapes

Trench collapse survivors live with fear, disabilities and recriminations.

Emergency responders treat Eric after co-workers uncovered him following a trench collapse. Giguere was buried by the collapse of the 6 ½ -foot trench and on the brink of death, requiring the use of a defibrillator to revive him.

I

t was going to be an easy fix.

The backhoe operator had clipped a small drainage pipe, and water poured into the 6 ½-foot trench. As the operator scooped the water out of the

by Wayne Grayson

trench, Eric Giguere watched.

No problem. They’d get the pipe fixed, and Giguere would be off on his honeymoon.

He went into the hole, knelt down to inspect the pipe and found himself fearing he was taking his last breaths when the trench collapsed on him. “I kind of saw it out of the corner of my

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 5/5/16 – Michael Casey Holland, 29, TC Excavating, Oregon City, OR • 6/7/16 – Matthew Josiah Jarrett, 38, Breakaway Incorporated, Sutton, WV EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 19

DEATH BY TRENCH eye, and I let out a loud scream,” Giguere recalls.

The dirt filled his eyes, ears and mouth. It wrapped around his body like a straitjacket, getting tighter with every attempted breath.

The earth squeezed until his skin turned blue, the weight methodically cracking each of his ribs, puncturing a lung and bursting the blood vessels in his eyes. It stripped him of oxygen and killed pieces of his brain.

In the span of 10 slow minutes, the dirt changed Giguere, too.

Shovels, CPR, a defibrillator and years of therapy were needed to bring him back.

But Giguere knows he’s lucky. Most workers in trench collapses don’t survive. Those who do walk away are forever changed.

stop, assess the situation and put a trench box in,” Giguere says.

But the boss stepped in.

At that point, Giguere’s construction experience was primarily on

“

heavy highway jobs rather than in trenches. He knew his boss, however, had worked in trenches for 30 years – without a trench box.

“Nothing had ever happened to him, which made us comfortable,” Giguere says.

Eventually the trench reached 6 ½ feet deep, and that’s when the backhoe operator nicked the drainage pipe. Since all the other crew members were retrieving pipes, picking up loads of stone and digging out additional trench, – Eric Giguere, Safety Awareness Solutions Giguere entered the trench alone.

Giguere doesn’t remember much about being buried alive.

He figures he was conscious beneath the soil for about 90 seconds. He was filled with dread. Would his co-workers even know where to start digging?

“There came a point where I knew I was going to die,” Giguere says. “There wasn’t a pain to it. It was just gasping for air. … I was panicked and I remember thinking, ‘I’m going to die because we didn’t do this the right way.’”

A nearby co-worker had heard Giguere’s scream. He alerted the others.

Giguere blacked out.

“These guys had to make a hard decision,” Giguere says. “They

When you get yourself in a place where you’re 6 1/2 feet underground with dirt crushing the life out of you, you’re just a scared little boy or a scared little girl wishing you could start the day over.

“I knew I was going to die” The trench that collapsed onto Giguere didn’t start out as much. On that October day in 2002, the crew began installing water lines into a 4-foot trench. As they continued down the road, an inspector said they needed to put more cover on the pipe.

The trench deepened gradually to 5 feet.

“When we reached the 5-foot mark, we were supposed to

”

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 6/13/16 – David James Erickson, 28, Vortex Drain Tiling, Grand Forks, ND • 6/15/16 – James B. Rogers, 33, KRW Plumbing, Jamestown, OH 20 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH knew if they used shovels they’d never get to me in time. But they knew if the operator used the machine that he might hit me with that bucket and kill me.”

The crew decided to do both. They used the machine to remove the first few feet of dirt, then shoveled the rest of the way down.

Giguere says the crew “had no idea where I was,” but they were able to uncover him after about 10 minutes.

By the time they got to him, he was bleeding from cuts delivered by the shovels. He had no pulse.

A co-worker administered CPR for 11 minutes until an ambulance arrived. An EMT shocked Giguere with a defibrillator, jumpstarting his heart before continuing to perform CPR. He was placed on life support and air lifted to a hospital.

Finding dirt in his lungs, doctors told his family he probably wouldn’t survive. “And if I did, they said, I would almost definitely be brain dead,” Giguere says.

“The fact that I’m alive? I’m a walking miracle.”

Giguere’s short-term memory is impaired, part of the brain damage he experienced.

He also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. He began

“

cognitive therapy immediately and continued the sessions for nearly three years. “I was afraid of the dark and tight spaces,” Giguere says. Movie theaters were especial-

ly troubling. “It took me 12 years just to be able to swim again.”

The stress of recovery and the financial burden of being unable to return to work bore heavily on Giguere’s marriage. He and his wife eventually divorced. Giguere never went back to work as a construction worker. But he would return to the industry in a different capacity.

Thirteen feet was not a big deal to me. I had done it all my life. You feel like Superman; like nothing can happen to you.

”

– Dave Spurr, Spurr Company

The death of Superman As he retrieved a dropped shovel in the 13-foot trench, Dave Spurr heard a co-worker shout. The trench gave way.

“It’s completely black,” Spurr recalls. “When they dug me out and got me far enough where they could grab my arms and pull me out, my chest felt like you had dropped 2,000 pounds of weight on top of it.

“Everybody says it feels like getting hit by a truck, and that’s exactly what it felt like.”

Spurr was buried in a matter of seconds, and for what he estimates was about five excruciating minutes, he clung to life, unable to move or breathe.

It was death without the dying.

Though the collapse happened 16 years ago, Spurr, 52, now owner and president of Spurr Company in Paso Robles, California, vividly recalls the details.

6/20/16 – Nathan Halteman, 52, Halteman’s Construction, Lebanon, PA • 7/14/16 – Louis Thomas, 25, Crocker Construction, Grand Cane, LA EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 21

DEATH BY TRENCH “I had been in business about seven years at the time. I had a crew of about 13 people, and I had been in a lot of deep trenches,” Spurr says. “Thirteen feet was not a big deal to me. I had done it all my life.

“You feel like Superman, like nothing can happen to you.”

Spurr and his crew were running a sewer line down a hill to tie it into a mainline along a street. He was operating a backhoe while his crew worked at the tie-in point inside the trench. The crew had placed shoring jacks in the part of the trench where they were working, to protect against collapse.

Spurr was extending the trench, digging about 50 feet away from his crew, when he noticed a square-point shovel had fallen in.

“I said, ‘Heck, I’ll just hop off the backhoe and go into the trench real quick and grab that shovel,” Spurr says.

As he grabbed the shovel, a laborer who was checking grade alongside Spurr noticed a crack forming on top of the trench. He shouted an alarm down to Spurr.

Spurr considered running toward his crew with the hopes of making it to the shoring before the soil collapsed.

But that seemed too far away, so he went back the way he came. He

wasn’t quick enough.

“I had my arm bent up as if you were raising your hand when it covered me. I figured I could move my hand up to signal where I was,

“

but I couldn’t move my hand at all,” Spurr says.

The earth pinned his head and body against the side of the trench.

The clay-like soil that had voids in it gave him three or four breaths worth of oxygen. But the benefit of air was a double-edged sword.

With each breath, the soil that stretched at least 2 feet above his head constricted tighter around him.

“You go to take a breath and you can’t – Joe Porchetta, GMP Contracting take another because of the pressure of it,” he says. “You breathe out and you go to breathe in, and the dirt settles in against your stomach tighter.”

His terror increased when he heard the backhoe fire up.

Would the machine’s bucket kill him as it searched for him beneath the soil?

“The only thing that saved my life was that I had a guy with me who knew where I was in the trench,” he says.

Eventually the crew uncovered a portion of Spurr’s hat and began digging in front of him, releasing the soil’s grip from his chest and face. “I was right at the end of not being able to breathe anymore,” he says. “I thought I had taken my last breath.”

When he emerged from the trench, the

My message to my guys is that no one’s life is worth it. If it’s not safe, you don’t do it. We regroup, we figure out how to make it safe. I can’t replace a life.

”

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 7/25/16 – Jimmy Scott Klous, 48, Dave Perkins Contracting, Anoka, MN • 8/1/16 – Edward Patrick Webb, 36, MI Farms, Elm City, NC; DL Lewis 22 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH pain set in. “My whole body hurt, and the first thing I said to them was, ‘You gotta get me to the hospital.’”

A week later, the terror of the incident came rushing back during a followup hospital visit.

“I had to go and do some MRIs. They did a lot of neurological tests because the lack of oxygen for that amount of time can damage your brain,” he says. “I couldn’t do it.

They actually had to get me into a bigger machine and give me some pills to relax just so I could go through it.”

“That’s what’s really weird about the whole thing,” he adds. “What it does to your life afterward. Before, I was never claustrophobic.

Now I am.”

“I need to get out of this business” A dive and a pipe saved Joe Porchetta’s life.

Now the owner of GMP Contracting in South Brunswick, New Jersey, Porchetta survived a trench collapse as a 20-yearold laborer at his uncle’s company during a summer break from college.

“We were installing a 36-inch storm pipe in the ground, and we ran into existing utilities that were in the way,” Porchetta explains. “There was a trench coming across our trench, so we weren’t cutting through virgin soil anymore.”

Porchetta says the utilities were in the way of the shoring. “So we took a chance and we skipped over that section instead of placing shoring, and we tried to continue laying pipe.”

As the crew worked, the old trench caved in. Two of Porchetta’s uncles had eyes on the trench from the surface and yelled down to him when the collapse started. When he heard the shouts, he quickly dove into a pipe.

The pipe shielded much of Porchetta’s body from the crushing soil, though it still rushed around him covering him up nearly to his chest.

“I couldn’t move,” Porchetta says. “My cousin was watching traffic maybe 300 or 400 feet down the road and he heard me screaming.”

Porchetta was trapped in the pipe for about an hour as his crewmates slowly moved away the dirt by hand while one of his uncles gently used an excavator to move much of the material from atop him.

The collapse occurred on Porchetta’s last day of work before returning to college. “I remember thinking, ‘I need to get out of this business,’” he says.

Get rid of that “stop-beinga-whine-ass” attitude Though all three trenchcollapse survivors experienced different circumstances, each of them

NUCA holds third annual Trench Safety Stand Down, June 18-23

T

he Father’s Day timing is intentional.

“The last thing we wanted was for a family to be without their dad because of a shortcut,” says Warren Graves with utility services contractor Team Fishel, Roanoke, Texas. Graves also is a member of the Safety Ambassadors Club with the National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA), sponsor of the Trench Safety Stand Down.

Working in trenches is dangerous, Graves says. The stand down is “an opportunity to make sure we get in front of the guys at least once a year with a trench safety message,” he adds.

The idea: NUCA provides the downloadable materials – available in both English and Spanish – for contractors to conduct their own stand down.

These include instructions on how to prepare for the stand down, a sign-in sheet, handouts and a completion form.

Sometime during the week, the group asks contractors to break for a toolbox talk or another safety activity to examine the specific hazards in trenching.

In return, contractors report back to NUCA, detailing when they did the talk and how many of their employees participated. Participating firms will receive a certificate of participation from NUCA, plus have their names published on a list of organizations that held a stand down.

Last year, NUCA says, it reached 10,000 people with its Trench Safety Stand Down, now in its third year. This year, the group hopes to double the amount of people reached. NUCA is asking its members to reach out to non-members, including plumbers, landscapers and smaller contractors, to help spread the word.

Graves says the Stand Down is important to Team Fishel. “You take just a few minutes to communicate the importance of doing the right thing the right way,” he explains. “You and your colleagues are part of a family, and we all need to take care of each other.”

The NUCA Stand Down is co-sponsored this year

by OSHA and the North American Excavation Shoring Association.

Excavation, Rocky Mount, NC • 8/8/16 – Noe Reyes, 49, Jaho Incorporated, Humble, TX • 8/31/16 – Nathan L. Fryday, 22, Mercer Construction, Edna,TX EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 23

DEATH BY TRENCH has walked away with the same message: the “old way” of digging trenches is not the right way.

“There’s a certain confidence and macho-ness to working construction,” Giguere says.

“We need to get rid of that ‘stop being a whine-ass’ type of attitude toward safety. When you get yourself in a situation where you’re 6 ½ feet underground with dirt crushing the life out of you, you’re just a scared little boy or a scared little girl wishing you could start the day over.”

His experience gives Giguere credibility in his current consultant role at Safety Awareness Solutions, Geneva, New York. In 2017, he made 164 presentations, urging workers and their supervisors to take trench safety more seriously.

“I show up in the work boots I was buried in,” Giguere says.

Spurr and Porchetta say their experiences shaped how they run their businesses. Both men make every decision through the lens of safety.

“Our safety program since this happened has been above and beyond the norm,” Spurr says.

Porchetta says he has walked away from more than one job that he felt was putting his crews in danger.

“I know what I do pretty well, and if I don’t feel comfortable with it, I’m not going to do it,” he says. “My message to my guys is that no one’s life is worth it. If it’s not safe, you don’t do it. We regroup, we figure out how to make it safe. I can’t replace a life.”

“We were in a situation one time where one of my guys was excavating and there were issues with the trench,” Porchetta continues. “We stopped everything. I told the guy to fill the hole back

in and start over.”

Giguere says there are still parts of him buried in that trench in Upstate New York.

“When people get in accidents, you always read that they were ‘treated and released.’ But what

does that really mean?” he asks.

“My bones healed. But the things you put your family through because we didn’t do things the right way? Those things don’t go away. They don’t forget it, and neither will you.”

Dirt doesn’t discriminate Examining trench fatalities that occurred over a two-year period, Equipment World found that those who’ve spent years working in construction are just as vulnerable as new workers. During 2016-2017, the youngest trench collapse victim was 18 years old; the oldest was 66.

Company hierarchy also doesn’t matter: four construction company owners died in trenches during this period.

In three incidents, there were two victims on one jobsite.

Average age of victim: 39 years old 12%

Under 25

28%

25-35

26%

36-45 46-55

18%

56 and over

16% 0

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90% 100%

Equipment World examination of 51 trench fatalities in 2016-17; age information unavailable on one fatality.

Top 6 states for trench deaths (2016-2017) Trench fatalities occurred in 28 states, but these states had the highest number of deaths in the two-year period.

Texas

6

Utah

5

Kansas

3

Ohio

3

Minnesota

3

Pennsylvania

3 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Equipment World examination of 51 trench fatalities in 2016-17

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 9/9/16 – Juan Tenalozo, 25, Northeast Backflow, Lugoff, SC • 9/21/16 – Russell Allen Polen, 48, Broy and Son Pump Service, Berryville, VA 24 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

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“

Families find few answers to "why?"

Contractors tell me trench protection is time consuming and it costs money. I don’t understand it. That extra bit of time and money should be worth it to save a life.

– Cheryl Spencer

"I

wanted to go to the site, and no one would take me.”

But Cheryl Spencer insisted.

She was there behind the police tape when first responders recovered her husband, Jimmy Dale Spencer, at 4:35 p.m. on March 21, 2016, she says. The 61-year-old died in an 8-foot trench in Alliance, Nebraska.

”

The morning of his death, Jimmy Spencer met with Shaun Houchin, his employer and owner of Clau-Chin Construction, and with Larry Kessler, owner of excavating contractor Larry Kessler Construction, to go over site soil conditions, according to the OSHA investigation.

Houchin had owned the lot for sev-

eral years and said he believed it was virgin soil. He also thought there was more clay in the area than was usual for the region. Houchin said the group felt it was safe to proceed, according to the investigation.

Mike Harvey, Clau-Chin’s foreman, offered additional insight. He and Jimmy Spencer had talked about

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 9/30/16 – Antonio Gonzalez, 41, Cap Construction, Cedar Hills, UT • 10/5/16 – William Bradford (Brad) Hargis, 28, SDT Contractors, Gates, TN 26 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH trenches before. “Spencer told him how dangerous trenches were and that you were never supposed to get into a trench where the walls went straight up,” Harvey told OSHA. Later that day, Jimmy was bent over, face down, attempting to connect PVC pipe to a new house when one side of the trench collapsed on him, covering him with 5 feet of soil, according to Cheryl Spencer’s legal complaint against Clau-Chin and Larry Kessler Construction.

Life changed dramatically for Spencer after that March day.

“When I go to bed, that side of the bed is empty,” she says. “When I eat meals, I have the wall for an eating companion. I don’t do what I used to do, because I have to do it alone.”

Jimmy Spencer’s death came two months before the couple were to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

What befuddles Spencer is the attitude of some of the contractors she still knows. Instead of her husband’s death sounding a giant alarm in the contracting community, “they tell me that things went back to the way they were,” she says.

“Contractors tell me trench protection is time consuming and it costs money, I don’t understand it. That extra bit of time and money should be worth it to save a life.”

“What the hell happened?”

“After they paid their fines and workman’s comp – to them, it was done.”

Jesus Garcia is talking about the death of his father, Alfredo Garcia, who died in a 6.4-footdeep trench at the age of 47 on November 7, 2015.

Garcia was an employee of Dan’s Excavating, Shelby

“I want to know, what in the hell happened?”

Township, Michigan. After an initial So does Jesus Garcia, who pored $21,000 fine for three $7,000 citaover the documents he received from tions, Michigan OSHA reduced two OSHA searching for answers. “It was citations by 50 percent because of the a Saturday job and his first day with company’s “prompt abatement efforts that crew and that supervisor,” he and the good faith it has shown” and says. “Two people made it out when issued no fine for the third citation. the trench collapsed, but the heavy The total final fine: $7,000. clay got him and buried him between The family declined the company’s the waist and chest. There was nothoffer to pay for Alfredo’s funeral. “We ing they could do.” didn’t know if that meant we couldn’t According to the Michigan Occupapress charges later on,” Garcia says. tional Safety and Health AdministraA naturalized American citizen, tion (MIOSHA) field narrative, one of Alfredo was also a construction vetsix witnesses described the scene this eran. That is why his former foreman way: “Alfredo was buried from the and family friend Robert “Bobby” waist down, with the shovel handle Schmaus declares, “I just know in wedging him against the north bank.” all the years he worked for me, he After the witness told someone to call would know whether a trench was 911, he said, “I personally jumped safe or not. I know he wouldn’t go into the trench and rolled big chunks into an unsafe trench. of clay off him. We pulled him up onto the top of the bank.”

The Macomb County Medical Examiner’s office said the cause of death was multiple blunt traumatic injuries, according to the MIOSHA incident chronology.

MIOSHA’s responding Senior Safety Officer Jerry Zacharczuk noted in the incident chronology that he “asked if shoring or a trench box was used to protect the employees in the trench.” The answer: No. Zacharczuk also observed that the angle of repose on the trench was 71 degrees. “With this configuration of soil and type, it should have been 34 degrees,” he wrote.

In the aftermath of his father’s death, Garcia has had new responsibilities Celebrating Jasmine Garcia’s high school graduation in thrust upon him.

May 2015 were Jimena, Alfredo, Jasmine and Jesus Garcia.

“I’m trying to take on Alfredo Garcia died in a trench collapse in November of the head-of-household that year. role, and I don’t know

by Marcia Gruver Doyle

10/7/16 – Yongwhan Kim, 20, HADCO Construction, Lehi, UT • 10/8/16 – Benjamin Bartle, 28, Agassiz Drain Tile, Buxton, ND EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 27

DEATH BY TRENCH how he did it,” says Garcia, who graduated this spring from Michigan State with a degree in electrical engineering. Compounding the family’s grief, a few months after Alfredo’s death, his daughter Jasmine suffered brain damage. “We’re in a kind of limbo,” Garcia says. “It feels like we’re in between places, not knowing what to do. Dad was the one who set the goals for us.”

Garcia says Alfredo’s construction friends tell him these tragedies happen too often. “But it shouldn’t have happened to Dad, because he was the safest guy on the work site,” he says.

Executives at Dan’s Excavating could not be reached for comment.

“They weren’t trained properly” With the on-screen name of “DirtDude,” 25-year-old Zachary David Hess regularly took Snapchat videos of the holes he dug for JK Excavating & Utilities, Mason, Ohio.

Including the one that took his life.

Three days after Christmas 2017, it took an estimated 150 first responders 11 hours to recover Hess’s body from a 25-foot hole in a Cincinnati suburb. His mother, Cindy Hess, is now on a mission to discover what led to his death.

“In my job, I figure out problems,” says the pharmaceutical executive. “I knew nothing about construction. I had to understand what was wrong in order to understand what was supposed to happen. I need to understand, because my son died.”

In January, she completed a 5-hour online excavation and trenching competent-person course. She’s visited the local OSHA office, bringing pictures of her son. “I wanted them to know who he was, that he wasn’t a number,” she says. And she told her story at an OSHA trench safety seminar in Cincinnati in April. This has led to further requests for her to speak at construction company and agency meetings.

Hess says the circumstances sur-

Zack Hess rounding her son’s death were “a perfect storm.” Zach and a co-worker were alone performing a sewer tap, following up on work that began before Christmas when crews were unable to locate the utility. The problems continued from there, she says: The soil was unstable; the sewer tap was 2 feet away from the house instead of the usual 5 feet; there was water in the hole; the spoil piles were on the edge of the trench, and there was no ladder. A trench box was available, but it was too small and it wasn’t used.

Zach and his co-worker took turns digging out the trench. Zach, who Hess says had little experience with deep trenches, called up to his co-worker: “It’s got me in the right leg,” according to Hess. (The official OSHA report was still pending as of press time.)

Instead of immediately calling 911, Hess says, the co-worker tried to save Zach. He climbed out of the hole and got on an excavator, apparently in an effort to dig Zach out. The trench was steadily collapsing, and Zach became trapped up to his chest. Finally, his co-worker called JK Excavating’s office and asked them to call 911.

“He was buried up to his neck by the time the first responders got to the scene,” Hess says.

She waited through a bitterly cold

night for the responders to recover her son’s body. “I couldn’t leave until he was out of the hole,” she says.

Hess has no illusions that the OSHA investigation, when it comes, will answer all her questions. “There are still so many unknowns,” she says.

As she reviews her son’s death, she focuses on the lack of training for both Zack and his co-worker. “It should be drilled into everyone’s head that the first thing you do is call 911,” she says. “I like Jerry,” she adds, referring to her son’s employer, Jerry Koller Jr., “but they weren’t trained properly.”

Koller declined to comment.

“What were they blocking out?”

OSHA can take six months to release its investigation reports to families and even more time if the incident is complicated. Often, those reports come with redacted information.

“A lot of things were blocked out,” Spencer says, especially information relating to the police report. “I wanted to know: what were they blocking out?”

She asked the Alliance, Nebraska, Police Department for its report. “We hit a brick wall.” She then went to regional authorities, wrote the state attorney general and requested materials through the Freedom of Information Act. Everyone said no, citing a Nebraska statute.

Spencer’s experience prompted a Lincoln, Nebraska-based organization to address the lack of transparency. “There was a law in Nebraska that a family could be denied a copy of law enforcement records,” says Tonya Ford, executive director of the United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities.

The organization lobbied to amend the law so victims’ families could see these records. “The senators were amazed that it was even an issue,” Ford says. The amendment was signed by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts on April 11. “It may be something small, but it’s important,” Ford says.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 10/24/16 – Kris Robert Corley, 53, Thompson Grading, Waco, GA • 10/25/16 – Kelvin (Chuck) Mattocks, 53, Atlantic Drain Service, Bellingham, MA 28 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

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DEATH BY TRENCH “There is nothing we could do” Spencer, Garcia and Hess are in different places after the deaths of their loved ones.

Garcia says he took his father’s case to five different law firms in Michigan. All five rejected it. “The protections granted to companies in Michigan are so extensive that unless we were able to prove it was done on purpose or if there was [another] contractor on the jobsite, there is nothing we could do,” he says.

Lacking the financial means to pursue the case, Garcia adds, “Since the statute of limitations has past, we are left without any more legal recourse that I know of.”

Spencer and Hess still talk to Shaun Houchin and Jerry Koller, the presidents of the construction firms where their husband and son worked. Spencer filed a wrongful death complaint against three firms in July 2017. Hess says Koller knows she intends to file a suit as soon as OSHA completes its investigation. And, “I’ve asked the Warren County prosecutor to look into this as soon as the OSHA report is issued,” she says.

Hess also has a longer-term mission: to see Ohio pass a law modeled after Massachusetts’ 2009 “Jackie’s Law,” enacted after a 4-year-old died in an unsecured trench that collapsed in her family’s backyard. Under Jackie’s Law, among other things, contractors are required to get a permit from the local licensing authority before digging a trench. This permit details the trench location and anticipated dates of opening and closing the trench.

Spencer’s suit points out the potential liability of all contractors who are on site when a trench collapse occurs.

Because of workers’ compensation laws, a key to Spencer’s case will be the two co-defendants named in the suit in addition to Clau-Chin Construction, Jimmy’s employer. These are Larry Kessler Construction, which dug the trench, and Tony Mendes Ex-

Seated in the front row, Cindy Hess prepares to speak at an OSHA meeting in April.

“I refuse to let my son be a statistic,” she told the audience. “There should be no fatalities for accidental cave-ins. This is never an accident. It is 100-percent preventable.” cavating, which rented the backhoe to Larry Kessler Construction.

“The OSHA investigation said that the backhoe was a contributing factor to the cave-in,” Spencer says. “Larry was on the backhoe.”

OSHA fined excavating subcontractor Larry Kessler Construction $16,800, citing serious violations.

Clau-Chin is currently paying a $24,800 OSHA penalty.

Spencer’s complaint alleges Kessler is a primary culprit in the incident.

Kessler operated the backhoe on the job, and according to the complaint, “directed the actions, activities and performance of acts by Jimmy.” The complaint also states that “Kessler never considered use of or need for any form of protective system in the trench,” and that “Kessler admitted that he knew that OSHA regulated construction means and methods and

admitted that he violated the OSHA standards in this particular situation.”

“Jimmy Spencer was not my employee,” Larry Kessler said when contacted by Equipment World. “I have no employees. I was cited because they’re OSHA and they can do what they want.”

In addition, the complaint says Tony Mendes of Tony Mendes Excavating, which rented the backhoe to Kessler, “failed to supervise the use and operation of his excavating equipment” and did not assure that Kessler understood and followed trench safety procedures.

For the families, answers matter just as much as jury awards in working through these deaths. And they know their efforts won’t result in their fiercest wish: to restore their families.

“All of it sucks,” Hess says.

Web extras on equipmentworld.com/deathbytrench: • Video: Cindy Hess’s presentation at the OSHA trenching and excavation risk prevention workshop this April.

• Zach Hess’s Snapchat video of the trench in which he died.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 10/25/16 – Robert Joseph Higgins, 47, Atlantic Drain Service, Bellingham, MA • 12/15/16 – Donald (D. J.) Meyer, 33, Arrow Plumbing, Blue Springs, MO 30 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

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028

DEATH BY TRENCH

Photo: Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times

A distraught coworker is assisted by firefighters following a trench collapse January 26, 2016, in Seattle that killed Harold Felton. Felton’s employer, Alki Construction owner Phillip Numrich, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter, which is the first felony charge in Washington State in a worker’s death.

Expect more criminal charges in trench deaths J

ay Herzmark had never tried to get anyone arrested before.

But when the retired industrial hygienist from the University of Washington’s Environmental Health and Safety Department found out a worker had died in a trench collapse in his county, he felt something had to be done.

by Don McLoud

“No one should die in a trench,” he says.

Herzmark was no stranger to worker issues, having been active in the Washington Federation of State Employees union and a former director of the Seattle Chapter

of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.

The trench collapse, however, launched his activism to a new level.

The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) had cited Alki Construction owner Phillip Numrich with a willful viola-

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 1/5/17– Joshua Shane Price, 24, Hardy Plumbing, Evans, GA • 2/13/17 – Konrad Tucharski, 40, City of Chicago, Department of Water Management EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 33

DEATH BY TRENCH

Photo: Mark Garfinkel/Boston Herald

“

I thought, ‘You’ve got to do more than that.’…

That’s probably manslaughter.

”

– Jay Herzmark, who led a grassroots effort that resulted in Washington’s first felony charge in a worker’s death, filed against Alki Construction owner Phillip Numrich after a trench collapse in 2016 killed a worker in Seattle.

tion in the death of his employee Harold Felton and fined him $51,500.

The case might have ended there, but Herzmark’s efforts led to the first felony charge in Washington for a worker’s death, according to L&I. The second-degree manslaughter charge, filed by the King County Prosecutor’s Office on January 8, 2018, is one of six trench-collapse deaths since 2015 in which a local prosecutor has filed charges. In two of those cases, one in New York City and another in Santa Clara County, California, three people were sentenced to a year or more in prison.

Buoyed by the recent convictions and filing of criminal charges, some workers’ advocates hope to see more such local prosecutions around the country. They believe the maximum penalty under federal occupational safety laws for a worker’s death, a misdemeanor that carries up to six months in jail, is too lax to deter

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 2/22/17 – Adam J. Skokut Jr., 18, Adam Skokut Sr., Smithton, PA 34 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

Steven Smith was working on a nearby masonry project on October 21, 2016, when he saw a water main collapse that sent torrents of water into a collapsed trench and down Dartmouth Street in Boston. The photo shows him trying to assist at the scene.

He connected a chain to a street plate that covered part of the trench and called for a backhoe operator to help lift the plate.

Smith has since filed a lawsuit against Atlantic Drain Service seeking $200,000 to recoup costs for hospital expenses and therapy following the incident in which two workers trapped in the trench died.

worksite negligence. They also say the Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t refer enough cases to the U.S. Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

“The (OSHA) cases aren’t referred over to the Justice Department very often, and even when they are, the Justice Department doesn’t see it necessarily as the best case to spend the resources on,” says Katie Tracy, policy analyst for the Center for Progressive Reform.

But local prosecutors don’t face such constraints.

“At the local level, prosecutors can bring criminal charges into situations where federal OSHA couldn’t,” she says. “And they can also charge as a felony where federal OSHA can’t.”

‘You’ve got to do more than that’ Sometime shortly after 10:35 a.m.

January 26, 2016, Harold Felton entered a trench he and other workers

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

In the past, there’s been this hang-up on seeing workplace fatalities as crimes. People just see them as these unfortunate accidents.

for Alki Construction had dug beside a house in Seattle, Washington.

The trench was 8 to 10 feet deep, 6 feet long and 21 inches wide, according to L&I. About 10 minutes later, Felton’s co-worker, Maximillion Henry, heard him yell, according to a Seattle Police Department report. He ran to the trench but could not see Felton. The co-worker jumped into the trench and began digging. He called the company owner, Phillip Numrich, who had gone to buy lunch. Numrich told the worker to call 911. When Numrich returned to the site soon after, both men tried to dig out Felton.

They eventually reached Felton’s back and heard “coughing, spitting and muffled breathing,” according to the report. The Seattle Fire Department arrived, ordered both men out of the trench and began rescue efforts.

Felton’s body was found underneath the dirt about 7 feet down, crouched with his arms bent toward his diaphragm, the report said. It took hours to recover the body. The 36-year-old worker left behind a wife and 4-month-old daughter.

“He must have fallen in the hole,” Numrich later told a police officer, according to the police report. “That’s the only thing that makes sense. He knew not to go in there. He knew to stay 2 feet back. Those are the rules.”

The police department ruled the collapse an accident and turned the case over to L&I. L&I investigators determined that the trench was dug in Type C soil, the least stable. It was not properly shored, had no ladder and had been left open for 10 days during rainy weather. Felton and other workers were using vibrating tools and

”

– Katie Tracy, policy analyst for the Center for Progressive Reform.

Seattle firefighters respond January 26, 2016, to a trench collapse that killed Alki Construction worker Harold Felton. It took several hours to recover Felton, who was found 80 inches down in this trench, crouched with his arms bent toward his diaphragm, according to a police report.

The 36-year-old worker left behind a wife and 4-month-old daughter. a trenchless pipe extension process that loosened the soil in and around the trench.

Felton was attaching the new line at the house, using a Sawzall vibrating hand tool, when the trench collapsed, according to Mark Joseph, an L&I certified safety and health officer.

“Numrich did not intervene to stop Felton from using the Sawzall,” Joseph said in a probable cause statement. “Instead, Numrich left the job-

site to buy lunch for all three so that they could eat after Felton and Henry finished attaching the sewer.”

He also determined the company had used an aluminum hydraulic shoring system, but had not installed it properly and had only used two shores. The trench should have had four shores on the long end of the trench, and it should have had end shoring on the two short sides at the end of the trench.

“As a result, the shoring in place was wholly inadequate and, based on Numrich’s status as the ‘competent person’ and his statement during his interview that he was aware of trench safety issues, he should have known that the shoring was inadequate,” Joseph stated.

On July 21, 2016, L&I cited Alki Construction with eight violations, two of which were “willful,” the most serious level. The willful violations were for not having the trench properly shored and because Numrich, who was the designated competent person on the jobsite, did not ensure that Felton stayed out of the trench that was exposed to possible cave-ins.

On September 1, 2016, L&I announced the $51,500 in fines. The fines were reduced two months later to $25,750.

“I thought, ‘You’ve got to do more than that,’” Herzmark recalls. “That’s probably manslaughter.”

So Herzmark reached out to the nonprofit Center for Progressive Reform, which had been looking into criminal cases brought by local prosecutors for worker fatalities. The organization, based in Washington, D.C., had created a manual to help local activists initiate grassroots efforts to seek such prosecutions.

Using the manual as his guide,

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 2/28/17 – Valnei Antonio Ornellas Nascimento, 52, Bahia Construction, Montgomery Village, MD 36 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

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DEATH BY TRENCH Herzmark filed a petition with 120 signatures from labor leaders, attorneys, political leaders and workplace safety professionals with the King County Prosecutor’s Office calling for criminal charges against Numrich.

Herzmark wasn’t sure what would happen next, if anything.

“I’d never done this before,” Herzmark says. “I knew it was really difficult. I’ve been working in this field for 30 years, and I know that hardly anyone ever goes to jail.”

A little over a year after he submitted the petition, the King County Prosecutor’s Office made state history by announcing it had filed a felony manslaughter charge against Numrich.

“We alleged that the defendant’s criminal negligence caused Harold Felton’s death,” said Mindy Young, senior deputy prosecuting attorney.

“The evidence shows an extraordinary level of negligence surrounding this dangerous worksite.”

After Numrich was charged, he was released on personal recognizance. He currently awaits trial. Attempts to reach Numrich for comment were unsuccessful.

‘Penalties higher for killing fish than for workers’ Criminal prosecution is rare for workplace deaths, and it’s even rarer for someone to be sentenced to prison.

Between 1970 and 2016, about 400,000 workers died on the job, but only 93 of those deaths resulted in criminal prosecution under the federal Occupational Safety & Health Act, according to the 2017 “Death on the Job” report by the AFL-CIO. Total jail time for all 93 cases combined was a little over nine years.

Compare that to federal environmental protection laws, where in fiscal year 2016 alone, 184 criminal cases were prosecuted with total sentencing of 93 years in prison, according to the report.

Fines for workplace deaths are also low when compared to environmental violations.

Jordan Barab, former OSHA deputy director who writes the “Confined Space” newsletter on workplace safety and labor issues, says workplace deaths typically result in OSHA fines in the tens of thousands; whereas, EPA fines can rise to millions of dollars.

According to the AFL-CIO’s 2017 “Death on the Job” report, in fiscal year 2016, the average OSHA penalty for a worker fatality was $14,767. For a willful violation, the OSHA fine averaged $41,592.

In contrast, the average fine and ordered restitution for the 184 EPA criminal cases in fiscal year 2016 was $1,125,000, according to report data.

“If you’re planning to die on the job, make sure you take a bunch of fish with you, because the penalties will be much higher for killing fish than they would be for killing workers,” Barab says of the discrepancy.

Ignoring repeated warnings No firm data exist on the number of criminal prosecutions on a federal, state and local level for trenchcollapse death cases. However, since 2015, charges have been filed in at least eight cases in which workers died in a trench collapse, according to a Center for Progressive Reform database and Equipment World research. Local prosecutors filed all but two of those eight cases; the U.S. Justice Department filed the other two after referral by OSHA. One of the most publicized recent criminal prosecutions of a trenchcollapse death – and one most often cited by workers’ advocates – occurred in New York City in 2016.

On April 6, 2015, an inspector at a worksite in New York City’s Meat Packing District had several times warned the site’s supervisor and

More criminal charges Charges have been filed and sentences issued in five other trench-collapse deaths since 2015: • 2015: Richard Liu, owner of U.S.-Sino Investment, and the company’s project manager, Dan Luo, 2 years prison, Santa Clara County, California. Victim: Raul Zapata Mercado, died in 2012.

• 2017: Abraham Zafrani, unlicensed contractor and project manager, 6 months jail, 18 months supervised release, Ventura County, California. Victim: DeJesus Mejia, died in 2011.

• 2018: Wayne A. George, plumbing company owner, 2 years probation, U.S. District Court, Pennsylvania. Victim: Jacob Casher, died in 2015.

• 2018: Susquehanna Supply Company of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, $250,000 fine, plea agreement, U.S. District Court, Pennsylvania. Victim: Richard Thomas Gold III, died in 2015.

• 2018: Keith Bednar, president of Bednar Landscape Services, and Corporate Secretary Christopher C. Liberatore, applied to pretrial intervention program to dismiss charges after completion, company ordered to pay $50,000 to be split among victims’ children, Morris County, New Jersey.

Victims: Oscar Portillo and Selvin Zelaya; died in 2014.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 3/9/17 – David Allen Williams, 36, Stark Contracting, San Antonio, TX • 3/20/17 – Harold Foote, 58, Foote Dirtworks, Middleton, ID 38 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

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DEATH BY TRENCH

Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, right, announces manslaughter charges in the 2016 deaths of two men in a trench collapse in Boston. With Conley are Assistant D.A. Michael V. Glennon, left, who responded to the scene, and Assistant D.A. Lynn Feigenbaum of the Senior Trial Unit, who led the grand jury investigation that culminated in criminal charges against Atlantic Drain Service and its owner, Kevin Otto. foreman to keep workers out of an unprotected trench. Not long after the last warning, the trench collapsed on Carlos Moncayo, a 22-year-old undocumented worker from Ecuador. He was crushed to death.

At trial in 2016, the foreman for the excavation subcontractor, Wilmer Cueva, was sentenced to one to three years for felony criminally negligent homicide and misdemeanor reckless endangerment.

After Cueva’s conviction, site supervisor Alfonso Prestia accepted a plea deal of probation and community service for criminal negligent homicide.

Prestia’s employer, Harco Construction, ended up paying $10,000, the maximum fine the court could impose, after being convicted of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment in June 2016. The company was also fined $140,000 by OSHA. Cueva’s employer, Sky Materials,

reached a plea deal to pay a $10,000 fine on the manslaughter charge.

OSHA also fined Sky $100,000.

On the second anniversary of Moncayo’s death, April 6, 2017, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. called for tougher criminal penalties against companies convicted in worker death cases.

“A $10,000 fine,” he said, “is but a rounding error on a multi-milliondollar building contract.”

Flooded trench leads to charges in Boston Another trench-collapse case that has caught the attention of workers’ advocates occurred in Boston in 2016.

Kevin Otto and his company, Atlantic Drain Service, were charged in 2017 with two counts of manslaughter, one count of misleading investigators and six counts of concealing a record. They also face nearly $1.5 million in fines from OSHA for 18 violations, including repeat violations.

The charges followed the deaths

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 4/15/17 – Abelardo Rodriguez, 47, Urban Concrete Contractors, San Antonio, TX 40 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

of Robert Higgins, 47, and Kelvin Mattocks, 53, who were working in an unprotected, 12-foot-deep trench when dirt caved-in, covering them to the waist, then the water main at a fire hydrant burst, according to the Suffolk County Prosecutor’s Office.

“The trench was flooded in seconds, and neither Higgins nor Mattocks was able to escape,” the prosecutor’s office said. “Both died at the scene, and it would be almost six hours before their bodies were recovered.”

The prosecutor’s office also charged the company with concealing a record and misleading an investigator. The office said Atlantic Drain provided OSHA with doctored records to indicate the two workers had been trained in trench safety and had proper safety equipment.

Otto and Atlantic Drain have pleaded not guilty and filed to dismiss the charges, arguing that insufficient evidence was provided to the grand jury to determine probable cause. A judge rejected the request for dismissal of the charges in April.

Veronica White, attorney for Otto and Atlantic Drain, said the cause of the trench collapse was a hydrant pipe failure that allowed water to rush into the trench. Her expert witness, Dr. Marthinus C. Van Shoor, has submitted a signed affidavit saying that shoring can’t protect a trench against a rapid inrush of water.

“The collapse of the trench was an unfortunate accident,” White said. “…There was no criminal intent.”

She said the charges were the result of public pressure on the Prosecutor’s Office, and the OSHA investigation was not completed before the grand jury was presented evidence. “Once all evidence is made available, through request or order of the court, we expect to move forward in determining lawful avenues to dismiss this case,” White said.

DEATH BY TRENCH The trial is scheduled for January 2019, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Setting a precedent?

“In the past, there’s been this hangup on seeing workplace fatalities as crimes. People just see them as these unfortunate accidents,” says Tracy, with the Center for Progressive Reform. “The police don’t even investigate a lot of these as crimes. They just call OSHA. OSHA does an inspection and issues a fine. It’s literally considered an accident in almost every single case.”

With Herzmark’s efforts in Seattle and convictions in New York City and a few other areas around the country, Tracy expects local prosecutors’ perceptions will gradually change about seeking criminal charges in workplace fatalities.

“I’ve talked to other prosecutors,” she says, “and they’re like, ‘Well, where’s an example of a case? Has this happened before successfully?’

“Now we have concrete examples of successful prosecutions that they can look at, and they’re not necessarily afraid to try something new.”

Jordan Barab, former federal OSHA deputy director, also believes more trench-collapse death cases should be criminally prosecuted, and he believes all trenchcollapse cases should be considered willful violations by OSHA. “These are well-known hazards, and the solutions for preventing workers from getting hurt or killed in trenches are also well-known,” he says. “It should be the responsibility of any business owner who has a business involving digging trenches to understand how to abate those hazards and to do it.”

Herzmark says he plans to urge state regulators to refer more workplace death cases to police and prosecutors for criminal investigation.

Until jail time becomes a real possibility, he says, “people are going to

continue to do what they do.”

He says he’s also ready should another case deserving criminal prosecution catch his attention.

“If I could find another case, I would do it,” he says. “I would be all over it.”

equipmentworld.com/deathbytrench

Multi-million-dollar jury awards possible in trench-collapse suits

Average initial fine for a trench death: $50,290 The Atlantic Drain Service fine of nearly $1.5 million is an extreme outlier.

Looking at available records during 2016-2017, Equipment World found that the average initial fine for a trench death was $50,290.

OSHA’s most severe charge is what it calls a “willful” violation, meaning the employer demonstrated intentional disregard or indifference to employee safety.

Willful violations were issued in 13 incidents representing 15 fatalities in the past two years (since the investigations have not been completed on all fatalities, this does not include all incidents).

Initial OSHA fines in 13 incidents with willful violations totaled $2.95 million.

That number, however, is cut by more than half when the Atlantic Drain outlier is removed. For the 12 remaining incidents with willful violations, the average initial fine was $122,976.

In addition to Atlantic Drain, three other companies received high initial fines for trench safety infractions during this time period. Arrow Plumbing, Blue Springs, Missouri, received a $294,059 initial fine for the death of David (D.J) Meyer, age 33. And high fines aren’t just the result of a fatality: Kamphuis Pipeline, Grand Rapids, Michigan, received a $187,653 fine for exposing its employees to trench cave-ins. Jax Utilities Management, Jacksonville, Florida, received an initial $271,606 fine after an investigation of an employee injury in a trench. That fine has been reduced to $135,836.

OSHA trench fatality fines, 2016-2017 Top initial fine

$1,475,813

Average initial fine minus Atlantic Drain incident (44 incidents)

$50,290

Average pending/closed fine minus Atlantic Drain incident (34 incidents)

$25,012

Atlantic Drain Service, Bellingham, Massachusetts

Initial fines Below $5,000*

7

14%

$5,000 - $20,000

10

22%

$20,000 - $40,000

9

20%

$40,000 - $100,000

11

24%

More than $100,000

9

20%

*Includes fatalities where no fine was issued.

Note: Based on fines from 44 incidents; double fatalities had combined fines; includes two instances in which two companies were fined for one incident

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 5/16/17 – Christopher S. Hewey, 37, JP Trucking & Excavating, Bellows Falls, VT 42 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

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First on THE scene Trench rescues are methodical, labor intensive and often unsuccessful

“Not a hell of a lot of people survive it.”

That’s the assessment of Fire Chief Cecil “Buddy” Martinette Jr. of Wilmington, North Carolina, the author of the textbook “Trench Rescue” and a frequently cited expert

by Joy Powell and Marcia Gruver Doyle

on rescue training.

“A majority of people out there who install underground utilities do it according to the book,” Martinette says. “They are very safe, and they

care about their employees. But that’s not every case.”

If a worker is completely buried, it’s almost always lethal, Martinette says. “If the weight of the soil doesn’t crush you, then you’ll certainly suffocate in three or four minutes.”

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 5/22/17 – Vaughn L. Kopetsky, 60, R. A. Monzo Construction, Latrobe, PA • 5/24/17 – Edward M. Sinnott, 59, Don Antorino Sewer & Drain, 44 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH

A rescue: After working for 6-1/2 hours in March 2017, Omaha firefighters rescued 23-year-old Drew Johnson, who was buried up to his knees in a 12-foot trench, according to the Omaha World-Herald. (Reprinted with permission from the Omaha World-Herald.)

“

The only chance after that point: response technicians and military if a victim has somehow found an troops in special operations and is air pocket, either in the dirt or a on a federal rescue team. pipe. That is why first responders Alfes points out, for example, that keep on working, even as the mineven when they have the proper utes and hours tick on. equipment, firefighters are advised “I tell our students to expect the not to enter trenches deeper than worst and hope for the best,” says 15 feet. That’s largely because the Rick Gregg, group supervisor with primary protective systems they use the Alabama Fire College.

– pneumatic struts, or shores – are Every trench rescue is differnot rated for anything deeper than ent, from the soil conditions to the 20 feet, he says. likelihood of saving someone, says Trench rescue is an advanced fireUlie Seal, fire chief in Bloomingfighter course, says Gregg. “Trench ton, a Minneapolis suburb. He’s a collapses for firefighters are low founding member and frequency, but high risk. former coordinator of You may not have one in Minnesota Urban Search three years, but when you and Rescue Task Force 1, do, you have to be ready composed of five Minnefor it. It’s not a quick prosota fire departments with cess to get someone out.” firefighters and paramedIt takes eight to 12 reics from surrounding sponders to answer a 911 metro agencies, as well as trench rescue, Gregg says. physicians.

“If you’re a four-man enRich Alfes “It really depends on the gine company, there’s not severity of the collapse, the kind of a lot you can do by yourself,” he collapse, how deep the person was, says. Not every fire department has and whether or not we can provide people trained in trench rescue, and a protected place for them fairly departments with limited resources quickly when we get there,” Seal says rely on mutual-aid agreements for of the chance for survival. “There’s such help. Trench rescues can injust a whole lot of ‘ifs’ there.” volve dozens of responders.

With situations varying, there are Ideally, emergency dispatchers will steps and approaches that firefighthave a list of questions to ask the ers might not know unless they’ve caller: How many are in the hole? received specialized training.

How deep is the trench? Where can “There’s a lot to this,” says Rich they access the site? Are there any Alfes, co-owner and director of obstacles? Gregg tells of one conSpec Rescue International, a Virginstruction site so muddy the firefightia firm that provides consulting, ed- er equipment had to be winched ucation and training for specialized in with a dozer. “It’s a whole lot rescues. A retired shift commander easier when you can start calling for for the Naugatuck Fire Department needed assistance en route,” he says. in Connecticut, he trains emergency Once on the scene, responders

A lot of people have this mistaken notion that if they get buried up to their waist they’re going to be fine. But you breathe through your diaphragm, which projects downward. You can still suffocate.

”

– Alex Roberts, president of S. A. S. Contracting and a first responder.

Port Jefferson Station, NY • 7/12/17 – Jose Lozano, 50, Sagres Construction, Lorton, VA EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 45

DEATH BY TRENCH seek out a contractor’s comwon’t. We’ll act that out.” petent person, required by Firefighters typically lay OSHA to oversee excavation down plywood sheets, jobsites. “He is your initial called ground pads. Then source of information,” says they use trench protection Larry Phillips, director of edequipment to create a 12ucational services for Spec foot safe zone in a straight Rescue International. The trench. (Trench intersections competent person should and corners create addialso have the manufacturer’s tional complications.) “Until tabulated data for all trench they get all the shoring protection systems in use up, they can’t go down in onsite. there,” Gregg explains.

Sometimes, no workers Not all fire departments at the accident scene speak have the same equipment or English. And workers have most up-to-date trench resbeen known to leave before cue equipment. Gregg notes help arrives, likely because that pneumatic or hydraulic they are undocumented. shoring is a great tool, but The worst-case scenario expensive. Students at the is not knowing where the Alabama Fire College learn victim is, says Alex Roberts, how to use screw jacks and president of S.A.S. Contractcut-to-length timbers to help ing, Bethel, Connecticut, shore a trench. Responders and a 30-year first respondalso have found vacuum er. “The force of the soil trucks to be an excellent could have moved his body tool to excavate dirt. over one way or another,” To onlookers, the prohe says. cess may seem slow and Responders look for methodical. “But any clues – such as grease cans, movement of dirt can trigropes, water bottles – anyger another collapse, so thing that will give them an responders have to be in idea where to start. a safe area,” Gregg says.

Emotions often run high “They’re getting to the during a trench collapse, victim as fast as they can with first responders enwithout being a victim countering upset bystanders themselves.”

Firefighters train in a concrete trench at the Alabama and co-workers. For trench Vibrations from passing Fire College. rescue training, the Alabama trains, running equipment Fire College brings in actors – usuoperating the backhoe and the son and passing vehicles on a nearby ally other firefighters unknown to and cousin are in the trench,” Gregg road can prompt a secondary colthe students – to pose as distraught explains. “When you come on the lapse; so can the rotor wash from co-workers, among other roles. scene, they want to jump in and help an overhead helicopter when news “In construction, you have a lot of and tell us we’re not doing our job, crews get too close. family teams, where say the dad is and that they’ll do it themselves if we Responders must be well versed in

“

I tell our students to expect the worst and hope for the best. ”– Rick Gregg, group supervisor with the Alabama Fire College.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 9/11/17 – Tha Leng, 59, Flowerwood Nursery, Mobile, AL • 10/10/17 – Christopher James Godfrey, 30, Sunstar LLC, Wyoming, MI 46 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

A majority of people out there who install underground utilities do it according to the book. They are very safe, and they care about their employees. But that’s not every case.

”

– Cecil “Buddy” Martinette, fire chief, Wilmington, North Carolina.

dirt and assume they’re dealing with unstable soil. They refer to the first 2 feet of a trench as the “lip,” the bottom 2 feet as the “toe,” and the soil in between as the “belly.”

“The worst is mud, and dealing with a busted water line,” Gregg says.

“You have to get the water shut off.”

The fire college practices with a 180-pound dummy made of used fire hoses. “If you find a victim’s feet, you need to get to his upper body real quick and uncover his chest,” Gregg says. “Chest, head, nose, mouth.”

Part of training first responders can involve placing a polyethylene box containing 1 cubic foot of dirt on their chests so they feel how much it weighs, Martinette says. “Of course, in some collapses, you’re dealing with hundreds of cubic feet of soil,” he says.

“A lot of people have this mistaken notion that if they get buried up to their waist they’re going to be fine,” Roberts says. “But you breathe through your diaphragm, which projects downward. You can still suffocate.”

“Every joint is going to become a weak spot when you get material pushing against it,” he adds. “Your legs can be twisted, and you can suffer multiple fractures. You may be permanently disabled.”

Firefighters treat survivors and prepare them for removal. But even when a victim leaves the hole still breathing, the danger’s not necessarily over.

One of the most serious dangers is “crush syndrome,” characterized by shock and kidney failure. Lactic acid builds in crushed muscles,

Until the first responders arrive…

In Mankato, Minnesota, firefighters learn to stabilize trench collapses with the use of shoring and struts. and when responders remove the weight and free the patient, toxic blood rushes to vital organs.

Responders can counter this by intravenously administering saline or medicines.

Trapped people can even suffer hypothermia because 4 feet down or deeper, the dirt can be 50 to 55 degrees.

Ultimately, first responders say, most trench deaths could be prevented if people stopped cutting corners. A large part of the construction population simply “lives by luck,” Seal says.

“There’s a lot more risky behavior out there than the number of calls we actually get,” he says. “And many times, by the time we get calls, those people were killed fairly quickly. Nobody’s going to save them.”

Don’t jump in the trench, experts warn. While victims have been saved by co-workers doing that, there’s a good chance the would-be rescuers will need to be rescued themselves. And if you jump in near the victim, you could further compact the soil around him or her.

For victims buried no more than waist deep, place a shovel and ladder near them, says Buddy Martinette. “They’ll want you to come in there and get them, but we teach rescuers to not become the second victim.”

Because trench rescue is a process, this self-shoveling can speed up extraction.

“Don’t try to pull them out until you can see the tops of their feet because you have no idea of the weight of soil and the compaction and vacuum it creates,” Martinette says. “You literally cannot get them out until you see the tops of their feet.”

To protect a victim from an additional collapse, co-workers waiting for help can put shoring panels around the victim.

Other best practices: Approach straight trenches from the corners – the strongest points. And unless you know exactly where the person is, don’t use an excavator. “It compounds the problem,” says Alex Roberts. Doing so risks harming the victim with the bucket or putting extra pressure on them. “It’s mostly a hand-dig situation,” he says.

10/27/17 – Tommy Smith, 42, Mitchell Plumbing, Nashville, TN EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 47

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DEATH BY TRENCH

OSHA inspectors can immediately stop work and tell workers to get out of an unsafe trench.

What to expect when an OSHA compliance oFFicer investigates T

ip-offs about an unsafe trench can come from anywhere.

“We usually go to those jobs because we get a complaint from an employee, calls from the public, or law enforcement sees something unsafe,” says Steve Hawkins, assistant commissioner, Tennessee OSHA. “Everybody in Tennessee OSHA is trained and authorized to stop and

by Tom Jackson

conduct inspections, even if they’re just driving down the road on a Saturday.”

OSHA’s compliance officers investigate accidents, inspect work and levy fines and penalties for violations. The process is generally the same for all inspections: an

opening conference to explain why they are inspecting the worksite, a walk-around to identify hazards, and a closing conference to discuss the findings.

“The first thing we do is identify ourselves and present credentials,” says Hawkins. “Then we determine if there is a competent person present as defined in the standard. The

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 11/7/17 – Matthew Holladay, 31, All Power Construction, Huntsville, AL EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 51

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

Your employees are going to do what you expect them to do. If they know you want them to work safely, they will. If they know what you care about most is getting the job done, and nothing else, then safety is not going to be a priority.

”

– Clyde Payne, retired OSHA area director in Jackson, Mississippi way we determine if they are competent is that we look at the work they’re doing and ask them about their knowledge.”

An OSHA competent person is defined as “one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them.”

The site’s competent person should be prepared to discuss OSHA regulations, how they determined the soil type and how they determined what protection was needed, says Hawkins. The OSHA compliance officer will also take a soil sample with a small tool called a pentrometer, which quickly identifies soil type.

Hawkins stresses that having the authority to make changes is as important as technical knowledge.

If the person does not have the authority, he or she is not considered competent.

Next comes an examination of the jobsite. “Are the spoil piles 2 feet from the edge of the trench?

Are there ladders in the trench if it’s more than 4 feet deep? At 5 feet or deeper, you’re looking for protection like shoring or shielding,” Hawkins says. “And if the excavation is deeper than 20 feet, you’re looking for a plan approved by a registered, professional engineer for how you’re

going to protect that excavation.”

Inspectors also check to make sure nobody is ever more than 25 feet from the ladders. Hawkins calls this the “2, 4, 5, 20 and 25” inspection.

“We also point out that the ladder is simply there as a safe way to get in and out of the excavation,” says Hawkins. “Some people view a ladder as an emergency escape route.

It is not that. A trench collapses in seconds. By the time you’ve thought about running up the ladder, you’re covered up.”

If a compliance officer sees something unsafe, he or she will immediately ask the competent person to get people out of a trench. If the employer or supervisor refuses, a stop-work order is issued and, if necessary, law enforcement is called. “This rarely happens,” Hawkins says. “Most of the time the employer will cooperate.”

Contractors’ most frequent excuse for not following trench safety procedures? “We were only going to be down there for a second. We only needed to retrieve a tool,” says Clyde Payne, who retired in 2014 as OSHA’s area director in Jackson, Mississippi. That excuse gets no one off the hook. “A trench can collapse faster than you can flip a coin and catch it,” Payne says.

“I didn’t know” is the other excuse Payne heard in the field frequently, but “it’s hard to put credence in that,” he says. “If you go to any of the construction association meetings, they provide education and

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 11/19/17 – Kurt Peiscopgrau, 60, Don Antorino Sewer & Drain, Port Jefferson Station, NY 52 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

assistance on trench safety, and they frequently have OSHA guest speakers give presentations at those meetings as well.”

Much of the negligence is learned behavior, says Payne. “Your employees are going to do what you expect them to do. If they know you want them to work safely, they will.

If they know what you care about most is getting the job done, and nothing else, then safety is not going to be a priority.”

The construction industry does deserve credit for improving the safety of trenching and excavation sites over the last 20 years, Payne says.

“The industry has really stepped up and recognized this hazard. And you see more municipalities and large employers that are cognizant about hiring responsible contractors and making sure that they work safely.

That saves lives in the long run.”

Web extras

equipmentworld.com/deathbytrench • How to stay compliant • OSHA renews emphasis on preventing trench deaths • Nearly half of the states have own safety programs • OSHA fines: The price you’ll pay • If you’re on the jobsite, you could be liable • OSHA can help with consultation and training • OSHA’s Office of Partnerships and Recognition

DEATH BY TRENCH

1

Machine positioned at edge of trench.

7 ways to dig

an early grave

2

Spoil piles on edge, instead of 2 feet back.

5

No hard hat.

6

Observer standing on trench edge

3

Trench deeper than 5 feet.

7

No means for entering or exiting the trench.

4

No protection in trench

Equipment World would like to thank Oregon OSHA for this graphic idea.

EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 53

Trench protection:

big mission, big business

In addition to protecting workers, trench protection systems need to give crews enough room to do their job.

54 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

DEATH BY TRENCH

S

loping. Shoring. Shielding. The basics of trench protection predate OSHA’s 1989 regulation, yet many contractors still act like they’re a mystery.

“You read trench collapse investigations, and it always starts with ‘we didn’t know,’” says Mitch Post, training and technical services manager for Mabey, a trench shoring manufacturer based in Elkridge, Maryland.

“No one goes into work thinking, ‘Hey, I’m going to do something that gets someone killed today.’”

“Our biggest competitor is noncompliance,” says Dave Nicoli with distributor D. P. Nicoli, Tualatin, Oregon.

“They think, ‘This will just take a minute.’ They think they don’t want to waste time putting a trench box in.”

The 5-foot myth There’s also a misconception that contractors don’t have to worry about any trench less than 5 feet deep. “OSHA leaves it up to the judgment of the competent person,” Post says. “If you get someone hurt or killed in a 3-foot trench, you’re every bit as liable as if that trench was 30 feet deep.”

“People become complacent because they think the 5-foot level is the safety level, and it’s absolutely not,” says Alex Roberts, president of S.A.S. Contracting, Bethel, Connecticut.

“If that trench is only 4 feet deep and you bend over to make your connection, the trench can still collapse on top of you.”

“You have to be competent to understand the conditions out there,”

“

by Marcia Gruver Doyle

says Victor Serrambana Jr., president of VMS Construction, Vernon, Connecticut. “It really is an experience and training thing.”

Serrambana trains his crews to stop digging if the excavator bucket starts bringing up a different type of soil. “Just keep looking at what’s happening with the soil,” he says.

The four basic types of trench protection

T

rench protection measures and systems come under four basic types, which can be accomplished using a variety of methods and equipment.

• Sloping involves cutting back the trench walls at a prescribed angle from the floor to produce a stable slope. Slopes can also be benched in a series of steps.

• Shoring supports trench walls with a system of vertical uprights and/or sheeting and cross braces (shores).

Shores put pressure on the vertical uprights and/or sheeting.

• Shielding uses trench boxes or other types of support to protect workers from collapsing material.

• Professionally engineered plans are required for excavations 20 feet deep or more.

Taken in part from OSHA Trenching and Excavation Safety Fact Sheet and the Texas Department of Insurance’s Excavation Safety.

“It will tell you pretty quickly if it’s changing. Many times it’s because you’re coming into a previous excavation, and it may be an unmarked utility. It also may call for a different style of shoring.”

What’s underneath “Before you open up a trench, nature is in balance. As soon as you cut into it, the earth wants to heal itself by caving in,” explains David Dow, senior vice president with TrenchSafety and Supply, an Underground Safety Equipment company based in Memphis, Tennessee. “Except in stable rock – which is almost nonexistent – every trench is going to collapse at some point, sometimes quickly, sometimes not.”

OSHA regs classify soils as stable rock, then Type A, B and C, in descending order of stability. “The best way to remember C is ‘crap,’” Dow states bluntly.

Complicating matters is the fact that what’s underneath can be a mix of soil types.

Which is the reason why no trench, no matter how routine to a contractor, is the same. The type of soil changes, depth changes and terrain changes. Weather – especially rain – complicates things further.

You need to take all of this into account when choosing a trench protection system.

You choose “Protecting your workers from a cave-in is not a matter of which system is better or worse, but which one fits your situation the best,” says

If you have a trench box that’s not large enough for your excavation, or strong enough, or installed improperly, then you don’t have a trench box.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued)

”

– Mitch Post, Mabey

12/11/17 – Loren Richmond, 38, Scott Excavating, Waco, KY • 12/15/17 – Vicente Santoyo, 42, K-9 Construction, Orem, UT EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 55

Shoring is one of three basic methods contractors can use to make sure their workers are protected in a trench.

Top tips from contractors • Include trench protection in your bid.

• Have an emergency plan and go over it at the start of every job. Make sure you have the local fire department’s direct number. “With 911, you may be talking to a dispatch center that’s 100 miles away,” first responder and contractor Alex Roberts says.

• OSHA inspectors are not the enemy. Take a proactive approach and learn from their critiques.

• Get trained. Classes in trench safety are available from a variety of sources.

Mike Ross, national training coordinator, Efficiency Production. For example, many utility crossings occur in the first 5 feet of a trench. “Dealing with all the things around you is a huge driving force in what works best,” he says.

Contractors in a certain area may prefer systems based on tradition. “But it might be the absolute wrong system based on the job conditions,” Post says.

Trench protection systems are engineered by factoring in varying weights of soil, hydrostatic loads and the surcharge loads from items such as nearby traffic and equipment, according to Ross. In addition to protecting workers, these systems must give contractors enough room to do their job.

“

From sales to rental “Trench protection used to be a sales business, then rent-to-sale, and now it’s mostly rental,” says Wendell Wood, senior trainer, National Trench Safety, Houston, Texas.

“It was a small niche,” says Tom Hartman, senior vice president, strategic alliances, National Trench Safety. “Only in the largest cities would you have maybe one dedicated company. Now you have multiple competitors in multiple locations.

The lines have blurred between manufacturers and distributors. Both are looking at the opportunity to expand their equipment.

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 12/20/17 – Jesus (Jesse) Foster, 29, Wilks Underground Utilities, Wichita, KS 56 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

Job conditions also change, affecting trench protection systems. If ground water is present in a trench, for example, Post says it can literally more than double the amount of pressure placed on a trench protection system.

”

–Tom Hartman, National Trench Safety

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

The industry as a whole has improved by leaps and bounds in protecting workers. If another $3,000 in shoring rental on a multimillion dollar job will make or break your job, you really shouldn’t be on that job.

”

– Victor Serrambana Jr., VMS Construction Now everybody wants in.”

Market estimates now put the trench protection industry at between $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion in annual sales. The largest player in trench safety rentals is United Rentals, which bought NES Trench Safety in 2002. According to the firm’s 2017 annual report, rental revenues from the company’s combined trench, power and pump segments grew 27.5 percent between 2016 and 2017, to a total of $988 million.

(Note: Hurricane-related revenues on the power and pump side affect these results.)

As elsewhere in construction equipment, trench protection has consolidated, leading to a blending of who makes what and who distributes what.

“The lines have blurred between manufacturers and distributors,” Hartman says. “Both are looking at the opportunity to expand their equipment.”

The industry has also responded to compact construction equipment’s popularity by creating lighter shoring systems.

“For smaller jobs, the industry is moving from using steel to using aluminum,” explains Joe Turner, director of engineering, National Trench Safety. Another change: several trench rental firms now offer in-house capa-

bilities for engineered shoring services, required for trenches 20 feet and over.

And consulting capabilities have come to the forefront.

“Consultation is a huge piece of what we do,” says Jeremy Neill, region product development manager, United Rentals Trench Safety. The company says its experts keep up with local, state and federal regulatory requirements, helping contractors stay compliant.

Know what’s unique about a specific trench OSHA mandates that every company have a designated competent person to manage safety.

When it comes to trenches, this person must be trained and know the OSHA standards, know how to identify soil, know the correct use of protective systems and be authorized to stop work when hazards arise.

“It’s the responsibility of the competent person to make sure they know what is unique about a specific trench and that they have the right solution,” Dow says.

Many entities offer competentperson training, including OSHA, trench protection manufacturers, rental companies and safety consultants. United Rentals, for

NAXSA gains steam

I

ncreasing industry specialization in part prompted the formation of the North American Excavation Shoring Association (NAXSA) in 2014. Designed to promote the safe and efficient use of excavation shoring practices, the association says it represents manufacturers, engineers, rental companies, distributors, educators, suppliers and government agencies.

“This has been a sleepy niche industry, and we’d like to see it grow into the type of industry the market demands,” says incoming NAXSA president Ron Chilton, president of National Trench Safety.

One area NAXSA is addressing may have a direct impact on how contractors place equipment near open trenches in the future.

“We’re working on set-back guidance on where to place equipment,” says David Dow with TrenchSafety and Supply. “The OSHA standard says it should be placed a minimum of 2 feet away from a trench, but there’s a difference between a 15,000-pound backhoe and a 200,000-pound crane. The guy in the field needs some guidance as to what is and is not safe.”

Wendall Wood with National Trench Safety sees NAXSA as having a primary role in delivering the trench safety message to contractors because rental companies and distributors have constant contact with end users. “Not every contractor belongs to an association,” he says. And NAXSA has joined the National Utility Contractor’s Association and OSHA to promote NUCA’s Trench Nicoli Safety Stand Down this month. “We’re all working toward the same ultimate goal, but there hasn’t been a lot of coordination before,” Chilton says.

NAXSA has an ambitious agenda: eliminating trench deaths by 2020, according to Dave Nicoli, 2017 NAXSA president. To those who might be skeptical, he says, “Eliminating polio was a high goal, too.”

12/14/17 – Christopher Corbet, 45, Enco Plumbing, The Colony, TX EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 57

DEATH BY TRENCH

“

Every trench is going to collapse at some point, sometimes quickly, sometimes not.

”

– David Dow, TrenchSafety and Supply

and depth ratings. This “tab data,” as it’s referred to, appears on a plate or sticker attached to the system. It can also be given to the jobsite competent person in paper form or be accessible via phone app. Whatever form, the tab data A fail-proof system? for each system must be on the jobsite and accessible.

The contractor’s competent person is responsible for matching the soil with the type of protection used. Soil changes in an excavation, but the tab data on a trench protection system – for example, an allowable depth rating of 10 feet in Type C soil – does not.

The bottom line, experts say, is that operating Plan, plan, plan safely is critical to your Trench protection comes company’s future. “When into the strategy of how you It’s critical to know the type of soil on your job. This will you’re protecting your bid a job, Serrambana says. be key in determining how best to protect your workers in the trench. people, you’re also proAlso part of planning: tecting your company and walking the job to be bid, your reputation,” Wood says. making a note of soil conditions “Used properly, there are no Serrambana has worked in the and visible signs and utilities. “This examples of a trench protection trenches since he was a teenager. is what we do; we’re not caught off system failing,” Dow says, but there “When I look back at what I saw guard,” he explains. are plenty of examples of failure then, the industry as a whole has Experience also teaches that what’s due to improper use, from missing improved by leaps and bounds in bid is not what’s installed, says components to over-stressed protecprotecting workers,” he says, addRoberts. “It may morph from a 4-foot tion systems. ing: “If another $3,000 in shoring hole and you hit water, and you “If you have a trench box that’s rental on a multimillion dollar job might have to dig a much wider hole not large enough for your excavawill make or break your job, you in order to keep it from caving in. tion, or strong enough, or installed really shouldn’t be on that job.”

Plan for it in the contract so you can improperly, then you don’t have a cover yourself.” trench box,” Post says.

Web extras Some contractors may automatiTrench protection systems use equipmentworld.com/deathbytrench cally default to classifying all soils as manufacturers’ tabulated data, • Before you dig: Know your soil type Type C, but that may be unneceswhich outline, among other things, • Contractor trench safety resources sary. “It will exclude a lot of systems, the capacity of structural elements example, has nine full-time trainers, and each of its 85 branch locations has trainers plus online training capabilities. “Workforce development is a hot button issue in construction, and people are being hired who just don’t know what the OSHA standards are, because they’re new to the industry,” Neill says.

Ross estimates that in 2017 his company trained close to 1,500 students. “It comes down to the competent person and how well they identify hazards,” Ross says. “If something changes on the jobsite, they fix it. It’s a continual process, and they need to have a firm understanding about what it entails.”

and it will usually require the most expensive system,” Hartman says.

“They may be using a 10,000-pound trench box – and the resulting equipment needed to lift it – rather than a system that weighs much less.”

Trench-collapse fatalities 2016-2017 (continued) 12/28/17 – Zachary David Hess, 25, JK Excavating & Utilities, Mason, OH 58 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

An Unprotected Trench

IS AN EARLY GRAVE

~OSHA

Extraordinary efforts to rescue two men in this trench collapse saved one man’s life but one 20-year-old man died.

Trench Safety Stand Down Week June 18-23, 2018 Trench-related fatalities continue trending up. NUCA, OSHA, and NAXSA have teamed up for our 3rd annual Trench Safety Stand Down Week, June 18-23, 2018, to educate workers and reverse this trend.

Who Should Participate Any construction company that engages in trenching operations, plumbers, military, unions, associations, educational institutions, safety professionals, and safety equipment manufacturers.

How Companies Can Hold A Stand Down • Hold a 20-minute Toolbox Talk • Show an Excavation Safety Video • Hold a Training Class Recognition Every company or organization that holds a TSSD will receive a certificate of participation, as well as hard hat stickers for all employees who participated. Recognition will also be given in a press release, and NUCA and NAXSA publications.

TSSD details, as well as Toolbox Talks, fact sheets, and other stand down materials can be found at www.nuca.com/tssd

Also sponsored by NUCA’s Safety Ambassadors Club Alex E. Paris Contracting Atlas Excavating Barber Utilities Blood Hound Case Construction Equipment Caterpillar, Inc. Cemen Tech, Inc. COMDATA Core & Main CNA Ditch Witch Ferguson Waterworks Greg Strudwick & Associates HCSS Horizontal Boring & Tunneling

HRP Construction Hymax by Krausz John Deere Johnson Bros.

Komatsu America L.G. Roloff Construction McLaughlin National Trench Safety Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors Safety Management Services Team Fishel Team Safety United Rentals Xylem Wacker Neuson Corp.

CONGRATULATIONS

to the 2018 Contractor of the Year winner and finalists

IN

R

E

N

W

Matt Bachtel

Don and Rae Peters

Bachtel Excavating Massillon, Ohio

Solid Earth Civil Constructors Pueblo, Colorado

Jon Claycomb

Clem Cooke

Fritz-Rumer-Cooke Company Claycomb Excavating New Enterprise, Pennsylvania Columbus, Ohio

Stephen Bielecki and Russell Kibler R & S General Contractors Bristol, Pennsylvania

Kurt Unnerstall

K. J. Unnerstall Construction Washington, Missouri

Dan and Marsha Steffey Steffey Excavating Peoria, Arizona

Sponsored by:

Dana Wiehe and Stewart Petrovits Blacktop Maintenance Corporation Poughkeepsie, New York

Bryan Kissner

Kissner General Contractors Austin, Colorado

Tommy Turner Turner Reed Liberty Hill, Texas

Brett Reshetar Reshetar Systems Anoka, Minnesota

Victor Serrambana, Jr. VMS Construction Company Vernon, Connecticut

contractor of the year finalist

| by Wayne Grayson |

WayneGrayson@randallreilly.com

Keeping a nearly 140-year legacy alive drives this Ohio family business’ success Clem Cooke, Fritz-Rumer-Cooke Co. Inc.

City, State: Columbus, Ohio

Clem Cooke stands in the doorway of one of the two railcars that served as the company’s offices for nearly 30 years.

Year Started: 1879 Number of 50 employees: Annual revenue: $7 million to $10 million Markets served: Railroad track and bridge construction, maintenance and inspection, rehabilitation and repair. Railroad grade crossing installation, maintenance and repair.

A

lot of business owners in this country can point to old photos adorning the walls of their offices and recall with a smile the countless hours they spent as children shadowing their fathers at work, learning the ins and outs of the business before it was passed down to the next generation. Many can even remember sharing that time with grandfathers who founded the family business two generations before.

But there are few, regardless of the industry, who can trace their business back not just to their grandfather, but to their grandfather’s grandfather. As the fifth-generation owner of railroad contracting firm Fritz-Rumer-Cooke, Clem Cooke can. Though the jobsite photos on the wall of the company’s Columbus, Ohio, offices date to the early

20th century, his company has been building railroad track, structures and bridges for 139 years.

Pride and compassion fuel Cooke as a business owner. He knows what a rare opportunity it is to sustain a business nearing 150 years old, but apart from Fritz-RumerCooke’s impressive legacy, Cooke can trace his infatuation with the work back to his earliest memories.

“Dad would always come home from work at night, and we’d have dinner all together. Just hearing him talk about what he did during the day always intrigued me. I can remember going to the office with him on Saturdays with papers and pencils, and I grew to really love the business,” Cooke says.

“The work,” he says with a pause, “it just got ingrained in your soul.”

Lengthy legacy Fritz-Rumer-Cooke got its start in 1879 building stone structures in Franklin County in Central Ohio.

“We had a stone quarry that we mined, cut and hauled stone here for that work,” Cooke says. Many of those stone structures were railway bridges and, over time, relationships with folks in the railroad industry were forged. By the 1930s and into the ’40s, the company began to devote its focus and expertise to that industry. The shift to performing railroad work exclusively was gradual, Cooke says, adding that the company was performing highway work as late as the 1950s and ’60s.

Today, the company primarily builds and repairs railroad track, not only for the seven major (Class 1) EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 61

contractor of the year finalist |

The Fritz-Rumer-Cooke staff at the company’s Columbus, Ohio, offices. railroads in the country, but also for short-line railroads and many other companies in the manufacturing, distribution and intermodal industries that rely on rail to bring materials and products into their facilities, to ship them out, or both.

Fritz-Rumer-Cooke employs around 50 people and in 2016 brought in about $7 million. The company has a sprawling service area including all of its home state of Ohio, each of the states surrounding it and other states contiguous to Ohio east of the Mississippi. In all, the company has authority in 23 states. Cooke says the company typically has five crews at work in the field. “What we do can get very spread out,” he says.

Despite its long history and the high regard in which clients across half the country hold the company, there’s a distinct humility and focus about Fritz-Rumer-Cooke. Take for instance the fact that for nearly 30 years, its offices operated out of two rail cars. The company’s original offices were at Union Station in downtown Columbus. But when the station was demolished in the late 1970s to make way for a convention center, Cooke says, his father and uncle bought two rail cars and moved them to the site of the company’s current 62 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

continued

equipment yard and shop.

“They put them on a rail spur, and that’s where we moved our office,” Cooke says. The company only moved into its current offices, less than a block away, because the staff outgrew the cars.

With its huge service area and the multiple offices that many of its clients operate, it would make sense for Fritz-Rumer-Cooke to open another office or two. But Cooke says the company is content to operate from a central location. “We have no desire to be the biggest out there,” he says.

“We just want to be the best. When someone thinks of something that has to do with railroad, they call us.”

Service and attention to the small details Clem has been a part of the company for 43 years, taking over for his father, Carl, who guided Fritz-RumerCooke for more than 50 years. “Ever since I’ve worn short pants, I’ve known what I wanted to do,” says Clem, who as a child opted to come to work with his father rather than play sports with his friends.

Clem says he has always enjoyed the unique and challenging work his company performs. “Part of our business is designing the railroad track that we construct. There are seven Class 1 railroads like CSX, Norfolk Southern and so on. And then there are a lot of smaller companies. There

are commonalities between the standards for each railroad you build, but there are also a lot of unique parts to the specifications,” he says.

Fritz-Rumer-Cooke’s biggest concern is delivering exactly what its customers want at the highest quality possible. After all, the railroad track Fritz-Rumer-Cooke designs, constructs and maintains is often the “lifeblood” for many of its clients, Cooke says.

“When their track is down, they’re not bringing in raw material,” he explains. “While they can truck product in, it takes time to convert from rail to truck. So we jump in and we move, and we get to the problem and fix it for them quick.”

Cooke says his company is so committed to helping clients in times of a rail emergency that it will pull crews from other jobsites at a moment’s notice.

“Every once in a while, you have a customer that’s disappointed to have us start a job and then leave, but I always tell them, we’re leaving to help someone else today, but in the future, it could be you,” he says.

Guy Oster of Southeast Railroad Supply says such customer service has led Fritz-Rumer-Cooke to be viewed as a top-tier contractor in the rail industry.

“They do quality work – honorable, professional,” he says. “…They’re just different. Something about them separates them from the other guys.”

Andy Prenger of Precision Strip says the company “is committed to the success of each project.”

“FRC has demonstrated a professional and ethical caliber,” he says.

“They build quality into their projects and do not take shortcuts. I trust that everything is done correctly, the first time.”

A family business run like a family While serving the customer is FRC’s main focus, Clem’s top personal priority is caring for the people who make up the company. “When people come here, they become part of this family.

We care about what we do. We take pride in producing a quality product that lasts, and we care about each other in this business.”

Cooke says he considers the times in his youth when relatives and employees at Fritz-Rumer-Cooke spent time with him and mentored him to be the foundation for how he runs the business today.

“When I was younger, I appreciated people who took a personal interest with me and spent time with me and had patience with me and gave me an opportunity, and that’s what I try to do with our people,” he says. “I truly want people here to go home at night having pride in what they did during the day.”

Few things make him happier, he says, than hearing about employees out driving with their families, making a quick detour to show off a job they did.

people that we have are long-tenured people, they genuinely care about each other, and that whole philosophy exists at this company. We don’t want to see our friends get hurt.”

Unlike most contractors, Cooke’s company is subject to the rules of three regulatory agencies: OSHA, MSHA and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The company performs periodic jobsite inspections and holds frequent safety meetings throughout the year, including MSHA training and training specific to certain customer specifications.

Swope authors the company’s weekly tool box talks, and Cooke says, “If we get the feeling we need to focus on something specific, we use the weekly meetings to focus on that.”

It’s been more than three years since Fritz-Rumer-Cooke has had a recordable OSHA incident, and the company holds a mod rate of 0.56. This commitment to safety has earned the company nearly a dozen Contractor Safety Awards from the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association. Many of these awards are “Platinum Level” – the highest the NRC awards.

The company’s latest two safety awards come from the Ohio Bureau

of Workers’ Compensation, which requires the company to perform annual drug-free workplace training.

The OBWC is only one of three drugfree workplace plans the company uses. The others are mandated by the USDOT and the FRA. “We give constant encouragement to our crews,” Swope says. “If we go through a jobsite and find no serious violations, the entire crew, including the foreman, gets a safety award, usually a $25 gift card. We gear our safety plan to encourage them to be safer rather than beat them up.”

That said, the company does have a disciplinary plan in place for when it’s necessary.

“More than anything, we want you to go home at night with everything you had when you showed up to work with us. We want you to go home to your family in one piece every night. The industry we work in, there are plenty of chances or plenty of ways to get yourself injured,” Cooke says. “We work around live railroad tracks. Whether it be a piece of equipment or a truck moving down the track or a train, if you’re struck, there’s probably going to be dire consequences. The margin for error is slim.”

A shop employee performs repairs on a piece of equipment.

Honored for safety Cooke’s care for his employees can perhaps most be seen in Fritz-Rumer Cooke’s sterling safety record, overseen by safety manager and project manager Ben Swope.

The company was named as Equipment World’s 2018 Safety Award winner at our annual Contractor of the Year awards in March.

“I think in large part the safety culture here has come from Ben’s stewardship,” Cooke says of his safety manager. “I think that because the EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 63

Solid Earth Civil Constructors, our 2018 Contractor of the Year, has a great story. So do you.

One way to make sure it gets told is to become one of our 2019 Contractor of the Year finalists. equipmentworld.com | May 2018

ÂŽ

2018 CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

Solid Earth Civil Constructors

Don and Rae Peters are leveraging technology and the next generation to propel their company into the future

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Our Contractor of the Year program honors the forward thinkers, high achievers and just plain good people in construction. These are the construction companies that get the job done right, on time and within budget.

Their clients sing their praises, their vendors wish all clients were like them, and their workforce is dedicated and loyal.

Sound like your company? Then it’s the perfect candidate to become one of our 12 Contractor of the Year finalist firms in 2019.

Our finalist will be invited to an expenses-paid Contractor of the Year celebration at the Encore/ Wynn Resort Las Vegas in March.

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demolition attachments

| by Don McLoud |

DonMcLoud@randallreilly.com

Pulverize with 360-degree rotation Okada’s Rotating Pulverizer ORC Series can rotate 360 degrees to handle primary and secondary crushing operations. It features a double shell-shaped wedge for greater crushing ability, a speed valve for faster cycle times and 7.1-inch-long reversible cutter blades.

The attachment is made of Hardox 400 steel. Its bracket is designed to protect components, such as the piston, rotate motor, speed valve and hydraulic hoses. Wear parts are protected by hardfacing.

The series is compatible with excavators of 19 to 41 tons.

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800-392-3015 • www.americaneagleacc.com/fp EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 65

demolition attachments

| continued

Designed for interior demolition Brokk designed its G50 Grapple for interior demolition jobs, including sorting and separating.

The G50 has one fixed and one moveable jaw and opens 17.3 inches. It is equipped with a 36-degree hydraulic rotation circuit. It can grasp drywall, ceiling sections, piping and HVAC ducts and pull them down.

The grapple is operated by remote control to keep workers out of harm’s way. It can pick up and sort small debris with its boltable grip plates. It is compatible with Brokk 60II, 110, 120D, 1160 and 280 remote-controlled demolition robots.

Your

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ROCK DRILLING

Brunner &Lay “Quality First” since 1882

i

Breakers for wide range of excavators

Doze, pile, push with heavy-duty clamp Pemberton demolition buckets feature a heavy-duty clamp design made for dozing, piling and pushing. They are available in capacities of 2 to 6 cubic yards. The company says they provide a complete demolition tool for wheel and track loaders. They have guarded cylinders, are made of high-strength material and have heat-treated pins and bushings. The moldboard hasEquipWorld_JUNE18_DTM70H.pdf replaceable bolt-on edges, and the main VMAC 1 5/15/2018 11:06:45 AMlip has teeth and segments. They come in a choice of pin-on or coupler equipped.

Untitled-65 1

Hyundai Construction Equipment offers 15 models of hydraulic breakers in its HDB series to fit everything from the company’s compact excavators to its 100-ton class machines. Hyundai’s excavator linkage matches the attachments’ mounting brackets. The breakers can also be fitted to other brand excavators by Hyundai dealers with custom mounting brackets. The breakers feature large diameter chisels and tiebolts to increase strength and durability, a hose adapter that prevents breaks and leaks, and auto-greasing to protect moving parts.

5/18/18 9:172018 AM 67 EquipmentWorld.com | June

demolition attachments

| continued

Strike energy adapts to the rock Montabert filed for three new patents for the design of its V6000 and V7000 rock breakers. The patented technologies are related to the hydraulic cushion and piston centering and to the variable adjustment system. The breakers adapt their striking energy to the hardness of the rock. The V6000 is for 6-ton carriers and the V7000 for 7-ton carriers. The breakers also feature a dual-lubrication circuit, easy-to-change wear parts and soundproofed housing to reduce noise.

68 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

Smoother, quieter breakers Bobcat hydraulic breakers for compact loaders and compact excavators automatically regulate pressure so they can operate regardless of outdoor temperature changes and work with a range of carrier sizes. They are designed for smooth, quiet operation while delivering a high rate of blows per minute. Their cylindrical breaker cradle design improves access to confined areas.

They are geared for precise demolition jobs, interior demolition, flatwork demolition and road repair. The breakers have only 12 main service parts, to reduce maintenance time.

Precise loading with less spillage Doosan hydraulic clamps for crawler and wheel excavators are designed to pick up and place material on demolition jobs. The clamp edges keep objects secure for precise loading and material handling, and a load-holding valve helps prevent spillage. The clamps can quickly be installed on the excavator dipper. They feature a heavy-duty cylinder, AR 400 steel and reinforced pivot area. They are compatible with Doosan DX140LC-5 through DX300LC-5 crawler excavators, and DX140W-5 through DX210W-5 wheel excavators.

ROCK DOESN’T STAND A CHANCE .

Durability, reliability and performance. Montabert breakers bring it to every job, matching working frequency to ground hardness, consistently delivering the perfect strike — again and again, year after year.

Rapid concrete crushing

The tooth system on TRK’s Raptor Demolition Pulverizer is designed for rapid pulverization by allowing the crush to flow through the jaws. The pulverizer is made for primary demolition of concrete structures and secondary concrete recycling. An optional hydraulic regeneration valve can be installed to also improve cycle times. Options include four-way indexable protectors and shear blades, two-way crushing teeth and 360-degree rotation. The body and jaws are made of AR400 steel. All points have hardened alloy pins and bushings.

See our attachments in action!

MontabertUSA.com

Follow us on social media for regular updates from Montabert!

2905 Shawnee Industrial Way Suwanee, GA 30024 ussales@montabertusa.com 866-588-8690

Engineering Innovation since 1921

Montabert and the Montabert logo are registered trademarks of Montabert S.A.S. in the United States and various countries around the world.

EquipmentWorld.com | June 2018 69

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The US Radar GP Rover lets you generate maps, accurate within two inches (5 cm), that provide your crews with a real deliverable – a view of subsurface infrastructure that can be used immediately, printed or transmitted electronically right from the site or uploaded to any number of formats. You can use those maps on the jobsite, update them with new info or save for future use. Simply click it on, wait for the satellite link, and begin mapping.

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final word | by Tom Jackson

TJackson@randallreilly.com

Safety culture or paperwork culture?

I

n the 10-year period from 2003 to 2013, there were more construction workers killed on the job in the United States than American soldiers killed in Iraq: 10,957 construction workers died vs. 4,512 fatalities in Iraq.

Granted, there were fewer soldiers in Iraq than construction workers here. But still, lots of bad people were trying hard to kill our soldiers. And soldiering, even in peace time, is a dangerous profession.

So why is the military, with all its attendant dangers, still safer than construction?

It’s the culture. Safety in the military isn’t just something you do to fulfill a paperwork requirement. It’s baked into the process. It’s part of your being, it’s who you are.

From the first day of basic training, attention to detail is drilled into every trainee. That’s why they want your bed made drum-tight, why your boots had to be shined to a mirrorlike gloss, why your brass had to be polished to perfection. Basic is just the warmup to mentally prepare you to master additional details that may just save your life.

Another big part of this culture is the intensity soldiers bring to their jobs. In Airborne school, you don’t pack your own parachute.

Everybody packs somebody else’s parachute and then the chutes are placed in a pile and you pick out one at random. It gets everybody thinking about how dependent they are on one another.

Before you climb aboard an Army helicopter, you’ll learn to strap, tape or tie down every single piece of gear you have so that even if you crash, nothing on your person or lashed to the inside of the helicopter will fly loose

74 June 2018 | EquipmentWorld.com

and injure somebody. They don’t even want people to carry loose change in their pockets.

So it gripes me to no end when I see some Chuck with a truck loaded with rakes, shovels and random equipment spilling out of the bed with nary a tie-down in sight. If nothing untoward happens, these badly loaded trucks may not have problems, but all it takes is one tire blowout, one hard swerve to avoid a dog or deer and these tools and materials can go flying into traffic endangering the lives of others.

On Army helicopters, the crew chief is responsible for the overall safety of the aircraft, and I never met a more intense and knowledgeable group of individuals than these crew chiefs. A crew chief eyeballs every person and every piece of equipment brought onto his helicopter. If something isn’t 100 percent, somebody is going to get an ass-chewing.

Do you have a crew chief-like guy in your company? Somebody who is trained to the max, who knows all the details and regulations? Who has the ability to attack and correct a problem instantaneously with a laser-like focus, and who has the brass to make it stick? What’s more, does your safety crew chief have the respect of the crews and can he train? Can he make everybody around him better?

You can have all the tailgate talks and presentations you like, you can document everything OSHA asks you to document. But if you don’t have that crew chief, if you don’t trust the least experienced worker in your company to pack your chute – so to speak – you don’t have a safety culture, you have a paperwork culture.

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