Inspection Detail

Inspection: 1246289.015 - Sagres Construction Corporation

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

At 10:00 a.m. on July 12, 2017, an employee was installing water main lines in an excavation measuring approximately 99-feet in length by 2-feet-8 ?-inches in width. The foreman stated that the company arrived on the job site at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday 07/12/17 and started digging at approximately 8:00 a.m., further interviews determined that the water main line that was already in the excavation was installed at 9:30 a.m., one of the other laborers stated that the birch shoring boards and hydraulic jacks that were used for cave-in protection were installed approximately 15-20 minutes before the cave-in occurred. A tape measure was used to determine that the depth of the trench where the cave-in occurred was 7-feet. He stated that the employee was in the trench for approximately 5-minutes backfilling before the accident occurred. According to the laborer, the employee was working within the shoring boards while backfilling. Further interviews with the foreman and a pipe layer determined that the employee was not specifically instructed to enter the trench to start backfilling. However, it was also noted that one of the main jobs of laborers is to backfill the excavation. The pipe layer stated that he walked down the hill in the direction of the employee to get a broom to sweep debris away from the edge of the excavation. On his way back up the hill, he turned around and noticed that the trench had collapsed, at which point he noticed a hard hat in the collapsed dirt and immediately yelled for his co-workers to help. The employee was crushed and killed by the weight of the collapsed dirt causing him to suffocate.

Keywords: Asphyxiated, Crushing, Trench