Trench deaths are increasing.

1. Excavation Safety in Review
2016
Draft 2 25 2017

2. Dec 2016
• BELTON, Mo
• First responders worked in
the freezing cold
temperatures for nearly 10
hours to recover his body.
• He was buried under 8 feet
of dirt.
• Family members have
identified the man killed as
30-year-old Donald “DJ”
Meyer.
• He’s a father from Oak
Grove who was raising his
8-year-old son, Ashton, on
his own after Meyer’s wife
died a few years ago

3. Dec 2016
• JEFFERSON TWP., OH
• Rescue crews have extricated a
construction worker who fell into a
trench
• The Violet Township Fire
Department says a contracted
worker for the city of Columbus
was on a piece of machinery,
digging a trench for a city sewage
project.
• The man fell about 15 feet off the
machine and into the hole and was
in a “precarious position.”

4. Dec 2016
• Montford NJ
• Worker trapped in
trench

5. November 2016
• Berryville, VA
• A man who was buried up to his neck
after the trench he was digging collapsed
has died.
• The victim was digging a trench for a
water line when the dirt collapsed on him.
• Police later identified the victim as 48-
year-old Russell Allen Polen of Front
Royal, Virginia.
• Polen was an employee of Broy and Son
Pump Service, which was contracted to
repair an underground utility line at the
trench.

6. November 2016
• Kansas City
• OSHA says an employee of Hydro Tech Plumbing was injured after
the trench he was working in collapsed.
• The worker was repairing underground sewer lines in a trench more than
10 feet deep.

7. Nov 2016
• Greenbelt MD
• Rescue crews were pumping
oxygen and warmer air into the
trench and the worker received
fluids from an IV. Brady said
the man was also hooked up to
an EKG so medics can monitor
his heart activity during the
rescue efforts.
• The worker is injured but
stable, Brady said.

8. Nov 2016
• SEVEN HILLS, Ohio - The U.S.
Department of Labor's Occupational
Safety and Health Administration's
Cleveland office has opened an
investigation after learning a 28-year-
old employee of W.F. Hann & Sons
was injured while installing sewer lines
in an 8-foot trench in Seven Hills on
Nov. 19, 2016.
• While working in the trench at
approximately 1:30 p.m., the soil
suddenly shifted, and the trench walls
around him collapsed - burying him in
an estimated 14,000 pounds of dirt. The
force of the soil was so great that it
shattered a piece of 4 x 8 inch thick
strand board the company used for
shoring. A co-worker dug him out of
the trench quickly and saved the man's
life. The Seven Hills Fire Department
responded to the 911 call and
transported the employee to Metro
Hospital.

9. October 2016
• Sioux Falls excavating
contractor for five serious
safety violations after the
agency's investigators found a
40-year-old equipment operator
suffered severe injuries while
working in a 16-foot-deep
trench on Oct. 28, 2016.
• A large amount of dirt fell into
a trench box in which the man
was working and collapsed
upon him.
• The worker was installing
sewer lines at a site in Brandon,
South Dakota.

10. October 2016
• Carroll County, GA
• A construction worker was killed while
in a trench. The earth around caved in.
• Once notified, emergency crews from
Carroll and Haralson Counties and
West GA Ambulance raced to the
scene. They were able to pull the man
from the dirt but were unable to
resuscitate him.
• When trenches reach a certain depth,
construction companies are required
to use trench boxes to keep the walls
secure. OSHA will determine if there
was in a trench box in the hole at the
time of the collapse.

11. October 2016
• Boston, MA
• Two construction workers were killed
when a water line burst under a South End
street, flooding the trench where they
were working with a torrent of water that
thwarted desperate attempts to save
them.
• Workers cried out, “There’s two guys in
the hole!” but the water came on too fast.
The trench was between 12 to 15 feet
deep.
• At least two people working in the trench
managed to escape.
• Atlantic Drain Service Co has a lengthy
history of serious safety violations dating
back to 2012, and has faced tens of
thousands of dollars in OSHA fines.

12. September 2016
• Camden, SC
• Kershaw County Coroner identified the man as
25-year-old Juan Penaloza of Columbia.
• Penaloza and another man were working on a
sewer and water line project in a trench about 7
feet deep when it collapsed.
• One of the men managed to escape safely,
however, Penaloza did not. Camden city EMS got
to the scene within 10 minutes but were not able
to save the victim, who died on the scene.
• Pearson said a trench box was not in place to
prevent a cave in.
• Recovery of the victim took extra time because
of the unsafe status of the trench. Emergency
responders had to construct a stabilization
system so they could work in the trench safely.

13. September 2016
• American Fork, UT
• A construction worker was killed after jumping
into a trench to save a co-worker from a cave in.
• Workers were installing a water line when the
dirt began caving in on one of the men, who was
six feet down in the trench.
• Three workers jumped into the trench, each to
help save the others.
• One worker made it out unharmed while another
had to be pulled to safety and was taken to the
hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
• However, the third worker who jumped in
became trapped and was stuck for more than an
hour. Police compared it to being in quicksand.
• By the time firefighters reached the worker, he
was dead.

14. Sep 2016
• Edina Texas
• 13 feet deep.
• The second victim,
identified later as 22-
year-old Nathan
Fryday, was overtaken
by the collapse,
eventually losing his
life as rescue efforts
pressed forward.

15. August 2016
• Lockhart, TX
• One man died and another
person was taken to the hospital
after a collapse at an excavation
project.
• Mercer Construction of Edna,
Texas was digging a sewer line for
a new housing development.
• A city employee told KVUE the
company was allegedly not using
proper shoring to keep a collapse
from happening. Mercer declined
to comment on the allegations.

16. August 2016
• Houston TX
• One person is dead after a
trench collapsed Monday
afternoon in Manvel.
• Contractors with Jaho Paving
and Utility were digging a
trench around 15 feet in the
ground in order to install a
sanitation sewer in a new
subdivision near Highway 6
and Savannah Parkway.

17. August 2016• ROCKY MOUNT, NC
(WTVD) -- A man was
killed Monday in a
collapse at a pond
construction site on Red
Barn Lane near Rocky
Mount in Edgecombe
County.
• Authorities said 36-year-
old Edward Patrick Webb
of Edgecombe County
was installing an overflow
pipe at a new pond site
when the accident
happened.

18. July 2016
• Officials in Minnetonka say two
road workers were buried in soil
for about 20 minutes after a trench
collapsed Monday morning.
• The victim who had been
completely buried was
unresponsive and in very serious
condition, according to a city
official, while the other victim is in
moderate condition.
• According to an initial
investigation, the victims were
prepping the area for water utility
work that’s part of the city’s street
reconstruction.

19. July 2016
• Willoughby, OH
• OSHA has opened an investigation after
four workers who were replacing sewer
lines were buried when the trench
collapsed.
• Only two of the four workers on the
scene were injured.
• OSHA’s preliminary investigation
indicated that the workers—who are
employees of Domenick Electric Sewer
Cleaning Company Inc.—were in a 10-
foot deep trench with sheer walls and no
visible trench box when the trench
collapsed.

20. July 2016
• St. Louis
• A worker was trapped
20 feet underground
• Mud and dirt from the
end buried the worker
up to the waist.
• He was trapped for an
hour.

21. July 2016• A Mansfield LA man died in a
construction accident in Bastrop
Friday morning.
• Sheriff Mike Tubbs says crews
were digging to install a sewer
line in front of Walmart when
the embankment collapsed.
Two men were trapped.
• Workers were able to rescue
one man who was trapped from
the waist down. However, they
were unable to rescue the other
man.

22. June 2016
• LEBANON, Pa. (WHTM) – A
Lebanon County man pulled from a
collapsed trench Monday has died
at a hospital.
• Nathan Halteman, 52, died at Penn
State Hershey Medical Center from
multiple traumatic injuries,
Dauphin County Coroner Graham
Hetrick said.
• Halteman, a self-employed
contractor, was working in a 15-
feet-deep trench at Triple-M Farms
in South Lebanon Township when
the ground around him collapsed,
authorities said.

23. June 2016
• Montgomery County
AL — A man who
died after becoming
trapped in a collapsed
trench Wednesday was
identified as James
Rogers, 33, of
Winchester, Ohio.
• Accident happened at
new home
construction site
• OSHA investigating
the incident

24. June 2016
• MADELIA MN
• A medical examiner
determined the
preliminary cause of
death of David James
Erickson, 28, of
Ironwood, Mich., was
asphyxia due to chest
compression.
Erickson was in a trench box working to place
underground piping on a farm in Lincoln Township
when the trench caved in and he became trapped.
The rescue effort took more than five hours due to the
unstable soil.

25. June 2016
• OSHA cited an
Ohio company
after a 33-year-old
employee was
crushed to death in
June 2016 as he
was digging soil
out of the 12-foot
trench in
Washington
Township, when
the trench walls
around him
collapsed - burying
him in thousands
of pounds of dirt.

26. June 2016
• Oregon OH
• Oregon Assistant Police Chief
Paul Magdich said the Jacob
Angelos, 29 was killed when
he was pinned between some
heavy equipment and a pipe
while working on the pipeline.

27. May 2016
• INDIANAPOLIS —
• 32-year-old man was freed from
the trench about 30 minutes
after it collapsed and taken to a
hospital in good condition.
• Reith says that by the time the
first fire apparatus arrived on
the scene minutes later, the man
had been uncovered to mid-
chest.
• Firefighters shored up the
trench and helped him extricate
himself.

28. May 2016
• On May 5, 2016, at 2:43 p.m., IFD
responded to an incident that was first
dispatched as an “injured person” with
Engine 4 and Medic 4 responding to the
call. The temperature was
approximately 83 degrees F and it was
sunny, with 60 percent humidity and a
light breeze. The incident took place in
a residential area as a subcontractor for
the city was replacing a sewer line in the
area of 2110 Ridgewood Street. The city
crew had dug a trench approximately 4
feet wide by 30 feet long through the
concrete roadway. The trench ran in an
east-west direction in line with the
roadway. An excavator was straddling
the trench just west of the patient, with
the bucket positioned to the north side
of the trench, in the area where the
collapse had occurred.

29. May 2016
• Lexington KY
• The victim, Samuel Tyler
Williams, was a married father
of three
• Trench along Todds Road was
16 feet deep; worker was
covered by dirt, gravel
• Trench is between a retaining
wall and the pavement

30. May 2016
• DENVER, Iowa
• The Denver Police Department
says construction workers were
digging along the foundation
wall of a building in Denver
when a portion of the wall
tipped over on Monday and
trapped 56-year-old Henry
Gray, of Clarksville.
• Firefighters and the owner of
Snelling Construction freed
Gray from under the wall, but
he died at the scene.

31. May 2016
• PORTLAND, Ore. - A sewer
worker died in a trench collapse
Thursday in the Garden Home
area, Portland Fire & Rescue
said.
• The worker had been at the
bottom of the trench, which
measured 11 feet deep, 3 feet
wide and 70 feet long,
according to Portland Fire &
Rescue.
• The trench was equipped with
shoring, which is a temporary
set of walls with bracing to hold
back the earth around it and
prevent collapse.

32. May 2016
• Boise, ID
• Two construction workers died
after they were buried in a trench.
• Three workers were working in a
trench about nine feet deep that
they had dug for a utility line when
a wall collapsed on them. When
Boise Fire crews arrived, they
found one man partially
uncovered in the trench and were
able to pull him out.

33. April 2016
• Delaware, OH
• Two men were taken to the hospital
after the trench in which they were
working collapsed.
• Delaware County EMS said the two
men were partially buried in the
trench for about an hour and a half
until they could be freed from the
dirt.
• The men were digging about six or
seven feet deep in the trench, which
was not properly reinforced on the
sides, when it partially collapsed.

34. March 2016
• Mentor OH
• The investigation into the
March 29 collapse that killed
Alexander J. Marcotte revealed
his employer, Aqua Ohio, did
not provide trench cave-in
protection for its employees,
• 5-8 feet deep with spoil at edge.

35. March 2016• Alliance NE Police say
Jimmy Spencer of
Minatare died Monday
after being buried in an
eight-foot-deep trench
while installing sewer
lines for a home.
• It took several minutes for
rescuers to remove
enough dirt to check
Spencer's vital signs.
• He died at the scene.
• Another construction
worker was injured and
treated at the hospital.
Cheryl Spencer - My husband died in
his cave in....I would go for prison
time! But the guy at fault got a fine of
21000, which I'm sure will lowered, n
his life goes on.

36. March 2016
• Hays, KS
• Employees with J Corp were working in
an 11-foot deep trench when it
collapsed, trapping workers.
• One employee, Agustin Macias, was
able to escape with only a broken arm.
But the incident led to the deaths of
Aaron T. Pfannenstiel, 44, and James L.
“Jake” Jacobs, 66, both of Hays.
• Rescue personnel worked for several
hours to reach the two men trapped.
But soon after they arrived on the
scene, rescue efforts switched to
recovery efforts.
• Trench boxes were not in place at the
time.

37. January 2016
• Seattle, WA
• A proposed $51,500 in fines for
safety violations has been issued
to a Seattle contractor in the
death of a construction worker
after a trench collapsed on him.
• Harold Felton, 36, died Jan. 26
during a sewer-repair project.
Rescuers were unable to dig him
out and save his life after dirt
walls in the 7-foot-deep and just
under 2-foot-wide trench
collapsed and buried him.

38. January 2016
• Des Moines, IA
• “He said if he got in a hole
and he died, it’s his fault,”
the widow of a 30-year-
old employee of an Iowa
excavation company told
the Des Moines Register
after her husband was
killed in a trench collapse
last January. “He took a
risk every day.”
“I lose my husband, and they only get $4,500 in fines,”
Brandy Jorgensen told the Des Moines Register. “The day I
read that, I lost it.”

39. January 2016
• Altoona, IA
• 30-year-old Justin Jorgensen, of Colfax,
was killed after the trench he was
working in collapsed. It took crews more
than six hours to recover his body.
• Jorgensen was working in the trench that
was between 10 and 12 feet deep with
an excavating tool when the dirt caved in.
The collapse happened while workers
were digging water and sewer lines.
• OSHA regulations require there to be a
trench wall in areas more than 5 feet
deep. The trench Jorgensen was working
in did not have a trench wall, authorities
said.