If you work in trench and excavation, you know that you’re in a dangerous line of work. It’s one of the riskiest areas in construction, with a fatality rate 112% higher than the rate for general construction. Soil is heavy stuff. A cubic foot of soil, a foot on each side, weighs at least 100 pounds, much more if it’s wet or contains rocks. A cubic yard of soil, 3′ x 3′ x 3′, contains 27 cubic feet, and weighs 2700 pounds, the weight of a mid-size car. A trench wall collapse can easily involve three to five cubic yards of soil. That’s 8000 to 13,500 pounds of soil caving in on a worker at the bottom of the trench.
Soil is held in place by pressure from the soil around it. All excavations carry a degree of risk because excavation removes soil, and removes the pressure the removed soil provided to keep the soil on each side of the excavation in place. Without that counter pressure, soil of trench walls is inherently unstable, and capable of moving. Once a cave-in starts, soil moves very fast. Workers can be buried before they can escape.
Many injuries and deaths in excavations occur because of failures by management to put the proper safety procedures in place and lack of the necessary safeguards to stabilize soil. If contractors and their supervisors fail to follow OSHA standard safety practices, and that failure contributes to a worker’s injury or death in a trench or other excavation, the worker or his survivors may have a claim against them. Trench and excavation workers need to know the OSHA standards so that they can protect themselves before an injury occurs, and if they are injured, to know how to seek compensation for medical costs, pain and suffering, loss of wages, and other consequences of negligence.
Here are some of OSHA’s basic safety practices for excavations and trenches.
- Plan before you dig – The safety plan needs to be in place before the digging starts, not made up as the work progresses. Before the digging starts, a person competent in evaluating soil conditions and in planning safety systems needs to study the site and the excavation plan, and lay out a safety plan (setbacks, trench boxes, ladders, etc) for the work.
- Contact gas, electric, phone, and other utilities – Before anyone lifts a shovel or starts up a backhoe, you need to determine what utility lines and pipelines run through in the excavation area, and have a plan for dealing with them.
- Plan for traffic control – Study the excavation area’s traffic patterns, and devise a plan for traffic control for the duration of the job
- Know all structures in the area – Note the location of all structures in the area relative to the excavation. Structures very near or over the excavation site will affect the kinds of safety systems usable.
- Plan for getting in and out – There needs to be a plan and equipment for safe entry to and fast exit from the excavation area.
- Test for hazardous gases and fumes in the excavation area – This is especially important in areas of toxic spills, where noxious chemicals may have permeated the soil. Determine whether oxygen levels are adequate in the excavation site. Provide for adequate ventilation in the area or if this is not possible provide respirators for all personnel on site.
- Get in and get out – Complete the work as promptly as is safely possible, and close the excavation site as soon as the work is completed.
If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a trench or other excavation accident, you will want to talk as soon as possible with an experienced construction injury lawyer. Investigation into the accident needs to start as soon as possible, before critical evidence is lost or destroyed, and while witnesses’ memories are fresh.