DOL Slaps Contractor for Over $200K In Penalties For Jobsite Safety Hazards

Kansas City, MO (WorkersCompensation.com) - A Missouri contractor has been hit by Federal workplace safety officials with a bill of $210,037 in penalties for failing to protect its employees from a trench collapse, as well as electrical hazards. OSHA inspectors observed workers at a job site in Kansas City, Missouri last May. They found that the employees were installing water lines and were being exposed to excavation and trenching hazards.

Blue Nile Contractors Inc., based in Birmingham, has been cited for four repeat and five serious violations, and has been enlisted in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program for their actions.

Among the serious violations listed in court documents obtained by WorkersCompensation.com are: 

• Failing to protect employees from electrical shock and burns. On or about 05/29/2019, at a jobsite located at the 2600 block of NE 46th St, KC Mo., the employer did not examine the cord for the electric pump being used to pump water out of the trench. The cord is missing the ground pin which caused the path to ground to not be permanent and continuous.
• Failing to have GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters) on the WEN gas powered generator that was providing power for the electric pump, exposing employees to electrical shock and burn hazards.
• Failing to properly ground the gas-powered generator via grounding conductor terminal to the frame of the generator and/or the truck to which it was mounted, creating an open ground.
• Failing to protect employees from crush by, caught in, struck by and/or engulfment hazards associated with trenching and excavation. The roadway was undermined so that it could cave-in, and/or collapse. The employer did not provide a support system, and/or other method, to protect employees in the trench and on the roadway.

The repeat violations included::

• Failing to protect employees from struck-by and crushed-by hazards by not providing or ensuring that a ladder or other means egress was available for employees working on the excavation. An employee was seen working in the excavation which was greater than 4 feet deep at all locations, and approximately 47 feet from the egress point where the ladder was located.
• Failing to protect employees from caught in, struck-by, engulfment and electrical shock and/or burn hazards associated with trenching. An employee was observed working in an excavation that had water accumulating in it, which compromised the integrity of the trench walls. Also, a worker was exposed to an excavation collapse in the excavation with a depth of greater than 5 feet and approximately 47 feet long (14 feet North to South, and 33 feet East to West).
• Failing to protect employees from struck-by and engulfment hazards associated with trenching.by not placing or keeping excavated or other materials at least 2 feet from the edge of the excavation.
• ·Posing employees to risk of struck-by and engulfment hazards associated with trenching and excavation. By failing to provide or require the use of benching, sloping, shoring or other means to ensure that employees working in excavations. The trench was greater than 5 feet in depth.

“Trench collapses can be quick and cause serious or fatal injuries, but they are preventable,” said Karena Lorek, OSHA Kansas City Area Director, in a statement. “Employers must ensure that there is a safe way to enter and exit a trench, cave-in protection is used, all materials are placed away from the trench’s edge, standing water and other hazards are addressed, and no one enters a trench before it has been properly inspected.”

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