OSHA fines South Dakota contractor for safety violations

ConDig (10-Feb-23).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined a Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based contractor $85,005 for two safety violations.

The agency said that Siteworks Inc had failed to take required steps to protect employees working near electrical powerlines from dangerous electric shock on one project last August. 

A day later, OSHA inspectors also observed a Siteworks employee installing water lines while they worked in an unprotected trench at 41st Street and Valleyview Road.

OSHA determined Siteworks Inc. failed to protect its work crews at both sites from known hazards as they replaced municipal sewer and water lines.

“To understand Siteworks Inc.’s serious disregard for their employees’ safety, consider they narrowly avoided a group of workers being electrocuted on Thursday and left another worker unprotected from the deadly risk of trench collapse on Friday,” said OSHA area director Sheila Stanley in Sioux Falls.

“We will not tolerate the brazen willingness of this employer to endanger their workers and will hold them accountable for their inactions. Siteworks has provided excavation services for more the 25 years and is well aware of industry and OSHA safety requirements.”

OSHA has a national emphasis program on trenching and excavationsTrenching standards require protective systems on trenches deeper than 5 feet, and soil and other materials kept at least 2 feet from the edge of a trench. Additionally, trenches must be inspected by a competent person, be free of standing water and atmospheric hazards, and have a safe means of entering and exiting prior to allowing a worker to enter.

Contractors are required to following strict rules aimed at protecting workers against trench collapses and cave-ins – which claimed the lives of 39 workers in 2022.

In November, OSHA fined two demolition contracts a total of $691,000 following a mezzanine collapse at former South Boston power plant.

Also in November, OSHA fined a developer and two subcontractors for exposing employees to potentially lethal dangers by allowing them to work near energized power lines on a New Jersey project.

Earlier in October, OSHA fined a Missouri-based contractor $58,008 following a deadly trench collapse.