Colorado-based Langston Concrete faces proposed penalties of $90,535 from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for failing to protect its workers from trench collapse hazards. OSHA responded in December 2017 after a trench collapse broke an employee’s hip and partially covered three others.
Before the incident, the team were preparing to install a diverter box on a storm water pipe. OSHA cited the company for not removing employees from a hazardous work area, and for failing to install cave-in protection
David Nelson, OSHA Englewood area office director, said: “This trench collapse, and the injuries it caused, could have been prevented if the employer had used required cave-in protection.”
