Excavation company again exposes workers to the dangers of trench cave-ins while installing water line at Chicago home

Employer name: OG Plumbing LLC, 400 N. Ada St., Chicago

Inspection site: 1632 N. Western Ave., Chicago

Citations issued: April 25, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Chicago North Area Office cited OG Plumbing LLC for one willful and one repeated safety violation for not providing cave-in protection or a safe means of exit for employees installing a water line in a trench more than 6 feet deep.

The agency opened an investigation under OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on trenching and excavation after observing two employees working in the unprotected trench at the residential home under construction on Western Ave. in Chicago on March 10, 2015.

Quote: “An unprotected trench can bury a worker under thousands of pounds of soil in seconds and cause severe or fatal injuries,” said Angeline Loftus, OSHA’s area director at its Chicago North Office in Des Plaines. “Since 2000, OSHA has cited OG Plumbing five times for violating federal trenching standards. The company knows that every trench deeper than 5 feet must have cave-in protection.”

Proposed Penalties: $69,300

Citations: View here.

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 Chicago North Area Office at (847) 803-8400.