OSHA finds water, sewer line contractor again willfully exposed workers to trench hazards at an excavation worksite

Employers name: Alton Industries Inc., 11 Carlton Drive, Eighty Four, Pennsylvania

Inspection site:  704 A&B Jonagold Road, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania

Citations issued: On March 22, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations for one willful and one serious violation. 

Investigation findings: OSHA opened an inspection on Oct. 29, 2015, under its National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation when an inspector observed a hazardous condition at the worksite. Inspectors found an employee replacing a sewer pipe in an 8-9 foot deep, unprotected excavation in direct view of the site’s foreman. The Pittsburg Area Office issued a willful citation for the violation. The inspection comes five months after the company was cited for the lack of cave-in protection. The same foreman who was present during the previous inspection was onsite and overseeing the work on Oct. 29.  

Proposed penalties: $41,580                                 

Quote: “Alton Industries Inc. continues to put its employees in considerable danger despite previous violations for unsafe and potentially lethal excavation work. This practice will not be tolerated,” said Christopher Robinson, director of OSHA’s Pittsburgh Area Office. “Without proper protection, trenching and excavating sites can become deathtraps for workers in the blink of an eye.”

View the citations:  http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/AltonIndustriesInc_11002384.pdf

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint; or report amputations, eye loss, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Pittsburgh Area Office at 412-395-4903.