A Beaver County franchise is facing nearly $175,000 in fines from OSHA after a trench collapse in Butler County killed a 21-year-old.
Jacob Casher of Clearfield died after a trench collapsed on him in September 2015 at a work site behind the Shelbourne Personal Care facility off Dinnerbell Road in Penn Township. A four-man crew (employed by a Beaver County franchise of A Rooter Man of Pittsburgh) was relocating sewer lines for the personal care home.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Pittsburgh Office announced Tuesday they found the company guilty of nine violations (two willful and seven serious) and they now must pay $174,000.
According to OSHA, federal inspectors found the company exposed multiple employees regularly to cave-in hazards while they worked in unprotected excavations more than 5-feet deep. The agency determined that since the company’s owner normally served as the excavator on the job, he was aware of the highly unstable condition of the excavated soil. OSHA also found the employer failed to protect employees from loose rock or soil by not keeping the soil pile at least two feet from the edge of the excavation.
“A Rooter Man of Pittsburgh knowingly took unacceptable risks in an excavation, which led to a tragic and preventable death of a young man with his whole future ahead,” Christopher Robinson, director of OSHA’s Pittsburgh Area Office, said in a statement. “Common-sense safety practices would have prevented this trench from turning into a worker’s grave.”
A Rooter Man has 15 business days to pay or contest the violations.
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