ConDig (13-Jun-23).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined an Illinois contractor $35,940 after a worker was killed in a trench collapse on a project in Buffalo Grove.

The agency said that Rooter Solutions Inc. had failed to install cave-in protection that would have protected workers in the trench and did not ensure the use of required head protection.

OSHA reported that a 27-year-old worker from the plumbing contracting business was fixing a residential water line damaged during excavation when the trench’s walls collapsed, crushing him fatally in December. Another employee in the trench with him at the time escaped the trench unharmed.

“Trench collapses are one of the construction industry’s most deadly hazards. Soil can shift suddenly and bury a person under thousands of pounds of dirt and rocks,” said OSHA Chicago north area director Sukhvir Kaur. “This worker’s death was one of 39 caused by fatal injuries in trench collapses in 2022.”

Last week, OSHA fined an Illinois contractor for flouting safety warnings about deadly trench hazards.

The agency said that Groundworks Contracting Inc was fined $77,000 after investigators found workers exposed on five occasions to potentially deadly trench cave-ins on the Silvercreek Crossing residential housing development.

In March, OSHA fined a Wisconsin-based roofing company and a general contractor for exposing workers to potentially deadly falls at an Appleton project.

Earlier in that month, OSHA fined two contractors after a 51-year-old painting contractor died on a residential apartment complex project in Cleveland.

In February, OSHA fined a Massachusetts-based roofing contractor $137,196 for exposing workers to dangerous fall hazards.