The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a landscape company whose employee died in a ditch collapse $8,400 for failing to properly train workers and shore up the trench.
SJ Ward Landscape of Longmont “did not ensure that employees were protected from cave-ins while working in an excavation where a protective system was not in place. The dirt wall caved in,” according to the citation, issued Nov. 17.
The company’s owner, Steve Ward, declined to discuss OSHA’s decision.
Jose Hernandez Cortes, 45, of Longmont was buried under 10 feet of earth Sept. 16 at a subdivision in Lakewood. Cortes and another man were digging the trench as part of a patio foundation in the Solterra development when the trench collapsed.
The other man was partially buried and suffered minor injuries to the lower part of his body.
It took about 15 minutes to dig Cortes out.
“To shore up a trench is really easy,” said David Nelson, area director for OSHA’s Englewood office. “That is the big question, why they don’t do it.”
It is unusual for a death in the workplace to be caused by a cave-in, Nelson said. His office sees about 14 workplace-related deaths a year, and most occur when someone is struck by a piece of equipment or a falling load of material.
In the past 10 years, he said, he recalls only three deaths in his jurisdiction caused by a trench collapse.
OSHA leveled a $4,900 fine for not shoring the ditch and a $3,500 fine for failing to train employees to recognize trenching hazards and minimize them with shoring.
Based on the company’s small size — there are 30 employees — OSHA reduced the penalty, which would have been about $11,000, by 30 percent.
OSHA has increased penalties lately, Nelson said. “Prior to that, this company would have probably received closer to a 60 percent reduction.”
Whether the fines are high enough to deter employers from violating safety regulations is “kind of a tough question to answer. In some cases, it is a strong deterrent; in others, maybe not,” Nelson said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
