9 ms·

Trench collapses have killed hundreds of workers in the US over the last decade

131 points by rntn 2y ago

tromp 2y ago
[flagged]
- freitzkriesler2 2y ago
  Video looks like somewhere in central and South America. As the comments say, you'd have to be insane to go in a trench that deep without a steel shore box.
- lelandfe 2y ago
  Warning, depicts what is certainly a man dying.
- tra3 2y ago
  The best connection I’ve ever been able to make is to compare it to fooling around with sand at the beach. Dig a hole, stick your foot in and bury it. I can pull it out with a bit of effort. Now multiply it by a factor of…10 or a 100. I don’t have any insight into safety regulations but I imagine a lot of them are a direct result of someone dying or getting hurt badly.
Aurornis 2y ago
> In every instance, the deaths were preventable, experts say. All but one of the victims were male; the youngest was 16. In many cases, the companies failed to follow basic government rules for making trenches safe. Having known someone in the construction industry, I don’t think this is as simple as blaming “the companies”. One of his frequent frustrations is getting workers to actually use the safety gear and follow the company safety policies. This includes properly securing trenches with the equipment they provide and mandate. I’ve heard stories about new guys who refused to wear safety glasses or hearing protection while working machinery. Some of them so defiant that they had to be fired within weeks. Obviously we need to harshly fine the companies that fail to provide safety gear or pressure employees to do unsafe things. However, having had a peek behind the curtain I think this issue is more complex than a simple failure of companies to follow guidelines for providing gear and procedures to employees. You really have to be on top of work crews all the time to make sure they’re actually following procedures rather than cutting corners.
- freitzkriesler2 2y ago
  It's a combination of many things up and down the chain. The work is dirty and grueling but even proper safety fails at times. Speed shoring trenches works but sometimes it doesn't for reasons that we don't know. Same for scaffolding and others. Construction is dangerous and those guys really do deserve the money paid to them.
- mattficke 2y ago
  If the existing procedures aren’t ensuring a safe workplace, the procedures aren’t adequate. Job site safety can add time, and it’s the company’s responsibility to ensure that there is no incentive for a worker to be able to speed up the job by skipping a step. I’ve worked in places where the safety procedures were clearly perfunctory (drove a forklift in a warehouse for several years, among other jobs) and if I had insisted on following the actual safety procedures I would’ve gotten endless grief from other employees for slowing them down. This is a management failure.
- cjbgkagh 2y ago
  In my experience it's the workers, and it's machoism amongst the workers that creates an intentionally anti-safe culture where such cultures are permitted. Where I live they remove the angle grinder guards off and use 'safety squints' when welding. A friend had people working on his house, when I visited I made them stop their work and put the recently removed angle grinder guards form their new tools back on. I also and got them a chepo welding helmet. Not long after I left that day they took the guards back off and a young worker cut off a 1/4 of his hand and had to be rushed to hospital. My friend had a 'let them do what they want to do' attitude to the workers which thankfully has now been replaced with a 'safety first' attitude. Unfortunately too late for the kids hand. This sort of stuff can't be done bottom up as there is huge social pressure to demonstrate manliness to peers through risky activity. Only strict top-down edicts where such digressions are severely punished can take away that pressure; i.e. instead of using safety equipment it's because they're a sissy it's because their mean old boss is a sissy and they're forcing them to use it. While OSHA can be a bit onerous it really does help to have an organization with teeth pushing safety culture. Instead of the conflict between the workers and their bosses 'stupid rules' it's the 'stupid rules' of some 3rd party.
aaron695 2y ago
I do love the way un-shored trenches have become a meme on TikTok using the sound bite from the "Who's in charge today?" meme video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 Example using the sound bite - https://www.tiktok.com/@seancallahan187/video/7094292784206630186 https://www.tiktok.com/@seancallahan187/video/70942927842066... It's a high level of education, knowing about shoring a trench and making jokes about it. Compared to pre-internet society or the can't cope with change part of society who doesn't use TikTok or know how to shore a trench. And yes, I'll jump in a deep un-shored trench to save time for a quick fix, but like all things it's a massively reduced risk compared to working in it all day that some places still do. As this article implies, men are expendable and it's mostly blue collar men who bear that brunt at work. If it was nurses being killed on the job it would be a different story. (The dangers of nursing are around shift work which kills but not at work)
- xnx 2y ago
  Vouching for this since TikTok was also the way I was exposed to and educated about this safety risk (as well as many others).
- throwaway_2494 2y ago
  > Compared to pre-internet society or the can't cope with change part of society who doesn't use TikTok or know how to shore a trench. I know that it's cool to think that the 'olds' who aren't on tiktok don't know anything. Troo fact: OSHA rules were invented before tiktok even existed.
- akira2501 2y ago
  > Compared to pre-internet society or the can't cope with change part of society who doesn't use TikTok or know how to shore a trench. "Word of mouth" has existed for as long as language has. TikTok is just the newest medium to convey this absolutely ancient human process. > And yes, I'll jump in a deep un-shored trench to save time for a quick fix So.. you know how to use TikTok, you've seen the danger, yet you remain intentionally oblivious to it? Your pride is worthless. Your life is priceless. Please be smarter.
BadHumans 2y ago
> Companies fined by OSHA, whose role is to ensure workplace safety, sometimes ignored the penalties and faced no consequences, including one that still owes more than $1.4 million imposed after the deaths of two employees eight years ago. > While those who violate OSHA standards can be criminally charged, authorities rarely brought charges. When they did, most offenders got off with a fine, probation or little time in jail. OSHA regulations are written in blood and there should be steep consequences for those who violate them including criminal charges. Based on recent happenings[0], the Supreme Court is looking to target OSHA next. They may have denied to hear this case but the opinions speak for themselves. It is on the radar. [0]: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-rejects-challenge-workplace-safety-agency-2024-07-02/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-rejects-chall...
- hipadev23 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    OSHA exists because workplaces routinely skip safety in favor of quicker and cheaper work sometimes in ways invisible to the regular employees. There's no chance to learn because a lot of these accidents kill or maim their victims to the point they can no longer work. If businesses could actually be trusted to not take those shortcuts in favor of profits maybe we could get rid of OSHA but it's been 50 years and it's not looking like voluntary compliance works.
    - hipadev23 2y ago
      Yep. I’m not suggesting dismantling OSHA, in fact I prefer to benefit from hard-won lessons and advancements from our ancestors like the earth is round, vaccines are good, nazis are bad, and government regulations actually have a purpose that’s almost always rooted in safety. I’m saying a majority of the population in the US is eschewing this knowledge in favor of re-learning things the hard way.
AlbertCory 2y ago
> OSHA requires some type of protective system, such as a box, for any trench deeper than 5 feet. The house next to me had a gas leak, and PG&E dug about six feet down to fix it (judging by the workers standing in the bottom). I didn't see any protective walls in there.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- quickthrowman 2y ago
  Despite what the article says, a trench box is not strictly required. You can slope the sides of a trench at a ratio of 1.5 ft per 1 ft of depth. Sloping the sides of a trench prevents cave-ins, which is what makes a trench dangerous. It isn’t always possible to slope the sides of a trench, that’s when the trench boxes/shoring come into play. In your case, the trench would be 30’ wide with a gradual slope down to 6’ depth from either side. Here’s an OSHA guide to working safely in trenches and excavations, page 12 of the pdf shows how to safely slope a trench: https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha2226.pdf https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha22...
  - dboreham 2y ago
    In my experience utility trenches are never sloped.
    - quickthrowman 2y ago
      That’s probably true, it’s more expensive to excavate more earth. My experience is strictly on the load side of a utility transformer with 2’ deep trenches (or directional boring) so I appreciate a different perspective.
    - zymhan 2y ago
      Ok
  - AlbertCory 2y ago
Mistletoe 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_shield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_shield You’ve seen these on the side of the road and now you know what they are for.
ec109685 2y ago
> “It would take around 186 years for OSHA to inspect every workplace in the country just once,” Barab said. “That means that unless a worker is killed, there’s a major incident or a worker files a complaint, an employer is unlikely to ever see an OSHA inspector.” While it wouldn’t be perfect, it seems like submitting video evidence that the trench is properly secured would encourage more safety.
- Clent 2y ago
  Simple uses of technology can be used to avoid a lot of work place troubles. No video sent, no one gets paid. This would ensure everyone on the job site complies with safety rules. Each worker would be incentivized to send their own video proof reducing claims of technology failure.
- bagful 2y ago
  186 years with the current level of funding and procedures, I assume. And random, unannounced visits of even 1% of those sites should make a significant difference.
pnathan 2y ago
Some regulations are written in blood. I wish that there was a much stronger enforcement culture in the US around dangerous work.
anonymousDan 2y ago
Having done a little bit of construction and associated safety training as summer jobs, it always surprised me how shallow a trench can be while still being lethal if it collapses. I remember a metre being deadly, but this story mentions a foot!
snozolli 2y ago
I immediately thought of this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 The trench collapses right after the OSHA inspector tells them they can't be in there without shoring. Nobody was hurt, but it was a great lesson.
dclowd9901 2y ago
God fucking dammit, that first story. A 12 foot deep trench with no shoring?!?! I hope anyone related to that decision is in jail. Unbelievable.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- hedora 2y ago
  This seems egregious to me too, since there were people in it. I can imagine laying a pipe 12ft down without ever having anyone in the trench. I wonder if that's common practice? (The obvious issue with doing it that way is that someone will a tool or the pipe will get snagged or whatever, and then someone will go down to fix it without bothering to order + install the shoring.)
OfficeChad 2y ago
[dead]
onewheeltom 2y ago
Not installing a trench box is on the company. Full stop.
- ProllyInfamous 2y ago
  I have been a witness in an OSHA investigation, and it is absolutely dispicable what companies will do/say in order to pass the blame onto an innocent employee (e.g. "he was always such a go-getter, and that day he voluntarily placed himself into harm's way"). Elsewhere in this discussion/thread, some speculate that "masculinity" is the main culprit (i.e. not company's fault); certainly ego factors in, but few employees ignore safety rules when companies properly penalize non-compliance. "Safety third" still allows for working environments which don't kill/fire employees over time-saving stupidity.

131 points by rntn 2y ago

tromp 2y ago

[flagged]

freitzkriesler2 2y ago
Video looks like somewhere in central and South America. As the comments say, you'd have to be insane to go in a trench that deep without a steel shore box.
lelandfe 2y ago
Warning, depicts what is certainly a man dying.
tra3 2y ago
The best connection I’ve ever been able to make is to compare it to fooling around with sand at the beach. Dig a hole, stick your foot in and bury it. I can pull it out with a bit of effort. Now multiply it by a factor of…10 or a 100. I don’t have any insight into safety regulations but I imagine a lot of them are a direct result of someone dying or getting hurt badly.

Aurornis 2y ago

> In every instance, the deaths were preventable, experts say. All but one of the victims were male; the youngest was 16. In many cases, the companies failed to follow basic government rules for making trenches safe. Having known someone in the construction industry, I don’t think this is as simple as blaming “the companies”. One of his frequent frustrations is getting workers to actually use the safety gear and follow the company safety policies. This includes properly securing trenches with the equipment they provide and mandate. I’ve heard stories about new guys who refused to wear safety glasses or hearing protection while working machinery. Some of them so defiant that they had to be fired within weeks. Obviously we need to harshly fine the companies that fail to provide safety gear or pressure employees to do unsafe things. However, having had a peek behind the curtain I think this issue is more complex than a simple failure of companies to follow guidelines for providing gear and procedures to employees. You really have to be on top of work crews all the time to make sure they’re actually following procedures rather than cutting corners.

freitzkriesler2 2y ago
It's a combination of many things up and down the chain. The work is dirty and grueling but even proper safety fails at times. Speed shoring trenches works but sometimes it doesn't for reasons that we don't know. Same for scaffolding and others. Construction is dangerous and those guys really do deserve the money paid to them.
mattficke 2y ago
If the existing procedures aren’t ensuring a safe workplace, the procedures aren’t adequate. Job site safety can add time, and it’s the company’s responsibility to ensure that there is no incentive for a worker to be able to speed up the job by skipping a step. I’ve worked in places where the safety procedures were clearly perfunctory (drove a forklift in a warehouse for several years, among other jobs) and if I had insisted on following the actual safety procedures I would’ve gotten endless grief from other employees for slowing them down. This is a management failure.
cjbgkagh 2y ago
In my experience it's the workers, and it's machoism amongst the workers that creates an intentionally anti-safe culture where such cultures are permitted. Where I live they remove the angle grinder guards off and use 'safety squints' when welding. A friend had people working on his house, when I visited I made them stop their work and put the recently removed angle grinder guards form their new tools back on. I also and got them a chepo welding helmet. Not long after I left that day they took the guards back off and a young worker cut off a 1/4 of his hand and had to be rushed to hospital. My friend had a 'let them do what they want to do' attitude to the workers which thankfully has now been replaced with a 'safety first' attitude. Unfortunately too late for the kids hand. This sort of stuff can't be done bottom up as there is huge social pressure to demonstrate manliness to peers through risky activity. Only strict top-down edicts where such digressions are severely punished can take away that pressure; i.e. instead of using safety equipment it's because they're a sissy it's because their mean old boss is a sissy and they're forcing them to use it. While OSHA can be a bit onerous it really does help to have an organization with teeth pushing safety culture. Instead of the conflict between the workers and their bosses 'stupid rules' it's the 'stupid rules' of some 3rd party.

aaron695 2y ago

I do love the way un-shored trenches have become a meme on TikTok using the sound bite from the "Who's in charge today?" meme video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 Example using the sound bite - https://www.tiktok.com/@seancallahan187/video/7094292784206630186 https://www.tiktok.com/@seancallahan187/video/70942927842066... It's a high level of education, knowing about shoring a trench and making jokes about it. Compared to pre-internet society or the can't cope with change part of society who doesn't use TikTok or know how to shore a trench. And yes, I'll jump in a deep un-shored trench to save time for a quick fix, but like all things it's a massively reduced risk compared to working in it all day that some places still do. As this article implies, men are expendable and it's mostly blue collar men who bear that brunt at work. If it was nurses being killed on the job it would be a different story. (The dangers of nursing are around shift work which kills but not at work)

xnx 2y ago
Vouching for this since TikTok was also the way I was exposed to and educated about this safety risk (as well as many others).
throwaway_2494 2y ago
> Compared to pre-internet society or the can't cope with change part of society who doesn't use TikTok or know how to shore a trench. I know that it's cool to think that the 'olds' who aren't on tiktok don't know anything. Troo fact: OSHA rules were invented before tiktok even existed.
akira2501 2y ago
> Compared to pre-internet society or the can't cope with change part of society who doesn't use TikTok or know how to shore a trench. "Word of mouth" has existed for as long as language has. TikTok is just the newest medium to convey this absolutely ancient human process. > And yes, I'll jump in a deep un-shored trench to save time for a quick fix So.. you know how to use TikTok, you've seen the danger, yet you remain intentionally oblivious to it? Your pride is worthless. Your life is priceless. Please be smarter.

BadHumans 2y ago

> Companies fined by OSHA, whose role is to ensure workplace safety, sometimes ignored the penalties and faced no consequences, including one that still owes more than $1.4 million imposed after the deaths of two employees eight years ago. > While those who violate OSHA standards can be criminally charged, authorities rarely brought charges. When they did, most offenders got off with a fine, probation or little time in jail. OSHA regulations are written in blood and there should be steep consequences for those who violate them including criminal charges. Based on recent happenings[0], the Supreme Court is looking to target OSHA next. They may have denied to hear this case but the opinions speak for themselves. It is on the radar. [0]: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-rejects-challenge-workplace-safety-agency-2024-07-02/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-rejects-chall...

hipadev23 2y ago
[flagged]
- rtkwe 2y ago
  OSHA exists because workplaces routinely skip safety in favor of quicker and cheaper work sometimes in ways invisible to the regular employees. There's no chance to learn because a lot of these accidents kill or maim their victims to the point they can no longer work. If businesses could actually be trusted to not take those shortcuts in favor of profits maybe we could get rid of OSHA but it's been 50 years and it's not looking like voluntary compliance works.
  - hipadev23 2y ago
    Yep. I’m not suggesting dismantling OSHA, in fact I prefer to benefit from hard-won lessons and advancements from our ancestors like the earth is round, vaccines are good, nazis are bad, and government regulations actually have a purpose that’s almost always rooted in safety. I’m saying a majority of the population in the US is eschewing this knowledge in favor of re-learning things the hard way.

AlbertCory 2y ago

> OSHA requires some type of protective system, such as a box, for any trench deeper than 5 feet. The house next to me had a gas leak, and PG&E dug about six feet down to fix it (judging by the workers standing in the bottom). I didn't see any protective walls in there.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
quickthrowman 2y ago
Despite what the article says, a trench box is not strictly required. You can slope the sides of a trench at a ratio of 1.5 ft per 1 ft of depth. Sloping the sides of a trench prevents cave-ins, which is what makes a trench dangerous. It isn’t always possible to slope the sides of a trench, that’s when the trench boxes/shoring come into play. In your case, the trench would be 30’ wide with a gradual slope down to 6’ depth from either side. Here’s an OSHA guide to working safely in trenches and excavations, page 12 of the pdf shows how to safely slope a trench: https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha2226.pdf https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/osha22...
- dboreham 2y ago
  In my experience utility trenches are never sloped.
  - quickthrowman 2y ago
    That’s probably true, it’s more expensive to excavate more earth. My experience is strictly on the load side of a utility transformer with 2’ deep trenches (or directional boring) so I appreciate a different perspective.
  - zymhan 2y ago
    Ok
- AlbertCory 2y ago

Mistletoe 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_shield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_shield You’ve seen these on the side of the road and now you know what they are for.

ec109685 2y ago

> “It would take around 186 years for OSHA to inspect every workplace in the country just once,” Barab said. “That means that unless a worker is killed, there’s a major incident or a worker files a complaint, an employer is unlikely to ever see an OSHA inspector.” While it wouldn’t be perfect, it seems like submitting video evidence that the trench is properly secured would encourage more safety.

Clent 2y ago
Simple uses of technology can be used to avoid a lot of work place troubles. No video sent, no one gets paid. This would ensure everyone on the job site complies with safety rules. Each worker would be incentivized to send their own video proof reducing claims of technology failure.
bagful 2y ago
186 years with the current level of funding and procedures, I assume. And random, unannounced visits of even 1% of those sites should make a significant difference.

pnathan 2y ago

Some regulations are written in blood. I wish that there was a much stronger enforcement culture in the US around dangerous work.

anonymousDan 2y ago

Having done a little bit of construction and associated safety training as summer jobs, it always surprised me how shallow a trench can be while still being lethal if it collapses. I remember a metre being deadly, but this story mentions a foot!

snozolli 2y ago

I immediately thought of this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uLs1_8yohb8 The trench collapses right after the OSHA inspector tells them they can't be in there without shoring. Nobody was hurt, but it was a great lesson.

dclowd9901 2y ago

God fucking dammit, that first story. A 12 foot deep trench with no shoring?!?! I hope anyone related to that decision is in jail. Unbelievable.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
hedora 2y ago
This seems egregious to me too, since there were people in it. I can imagine laying a pipe 12ft down without ever having anyone in the trench. I wonder if that's common practice? (The obvious issue with doing it that way is that someone will a tool or the pipe will get snagged or whatever, and then someone will go down to fix it without bothering to order + install the shoring.)

OfficeChad 2y ago

[dead]

onewheeltom 2y ago

Not installing a trench box is on the company. Full stop.

ProllyInfamous 2y ago
I have been a witness in an OSHA investigation, and it is absolutely dispicable what companies will do/say in order to pass the blame onto an innocent employee (e.g. "he was always such a go-getter, and that day he voluntarily placed himself into harm's way"). Elsewhere in this discussion/thread, some speculate that "masculinity" is the main culprit (i.e. not company's fault); certainly ego factors in, but few employees ignore safety rules when companies properly penalize non-compliance. "Safety third" still allows for working environments which don't kill/fire employees over time-saving stupidity.