The excavation in question was more than four feet deep(which requires shoring by OSHA regulation) but did not have "shoring" equipment in place at the time of the cave-in. Ironically, the employee in question has been very vocal for a very long time in requesting that proper shoring equipment be purchased by the city. Even more ironic is the fact that less than 24 hours before this "near miss" took place, the Peru city council finally approved purchase of OSHA approved shoring equipment, also known as a Trench Box. There is no question that city officials were negligent by failing to provide the proper equipment and training to its employees and failing to enforce the proper procedures for working in and around excavations. Some time ago, I asked Gary Bleck why the city did not have the proper shoring equipment. Gary informed me that he had been pricing new equipment for purchase and that employees were told to "borrow" shoring from local contractors when necessary. I asked who or what was causing the delay in purchasing the equipment. Mr. Bleck said he could not tell me who or what was holding up the purchase. I believe there were aldermen who were totally indifferent to the critical importance of purchasing this equipment and that is unacceptable to me. It is clear that we have some city officials, elected and otherwise, who have very little practical sense of how to provide oversite to a public works department, let alone an entire city. To say that the city of Peru "dodged a bullet" in this situation is a monumental understatement. We are so fortunate that nobody was seriously injured or killed. When you consider the fact that after this excavation began to fail there were no less than "three" workers in a life threatening situation. I had recently advised a water department employee they should refuse to enter any deep excavations until the city purchased a ditch box. The employee expressed to me the fear of repurcussions to he and others if they refused to repair main breaks. City of Peru employees have been risking life and limb for a long time repairing these ever-occuring water line breaks and they deserve better than this from city officials. This will be another example of "re-active" leadership.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Excavation cave-in results in "Near miss" incident
Tragedy was narrowly averted during a water main repair by Peru city employees Tuesday morning. One worker was partially engulfed when the excavation he was working in collapsed around him trapping him in the bottom of the excavation. Two other workers entered the excavation in order to free their trapped co-worker. My understanding is the employee who was working inside the excavation was not seriously injured but was quite shaken by the experience.
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If you are interested in the conditions under which water main repairs are done please go into the archives of this blog and check the photos that were put up on March 31, when a water main break happened on the corner of Rte 6 and Peoria. You can easily see the unshored up excavation and the people who are watching including the spw.
As a correction, per OSHA regulations:
Each employee in an excavation shall be protected from cave-ins by an adequate protective system designed in accordance with paragraph (b) or (c) of this section except when:
"Excavations are less than 5 feet (1.52 m) in depth and examination of the ground by a competent person provides no indication of a potential cave-in" 5 foot not 4 foot.
"Means of egress from trench excavations. A stairway, ladder, ramp or other safe means of egress shall be located in trench excavations that are 4 feet (1.22 m) or more in depth so as to require no more than 25 feet (7.62 m) of lateral travel for employees".
How deep was the excavation, what was the soil type, was there a slope present? Excavating is not a simple process and requires knowledge of proper regulations...PPE, Confined Spaces, hazardous atmospheres, etc. I know for a fact the City has shoring equipment available because I have a video of employees leaving and returning to the site with a screw jack for shoring.
Ordering a trench box is not sufficient in this case and is just another band-aid to the real problem; insufficient training and commitment from management. Employees are concerned with repairing leaks and management should be responsible to maintain proper safety protocol to ensure employees can perform their job in the safest manner possible. This is no different than asking employees to enter the old steam plant for repairs when the asbestos was being "removed" and demolishing was occurring.
What was the soil type, was there a slope present, why did two other workers enter to rescue the worker in an already unsafe environment? This action placed all three employees in danger and someone should have been present to direct the proper procedures.
Going just from the photos on March 31, it appears the walls are stable due to the soil/rock walls, there is a slope present, and the excavation appears to be less than 5 ft in depth but greater than 4ft so a ladder would have been necessary for egress (no more than 25ft of lateral travel).
Kristy
The city does not currently have any shoring, no screwjack either. At the time of the cave in my understanding there were two employees already in the ditch, and the third was not, until the cavein occured. One was engulfed in material the other wasn't. Thank god no one was hurt seriuosly.
the city council has always supported safety purchases. safety seminars, safety meetings and safety measures. never has voted no to safety purchases. ANOTHER STEVISM...BLAME SOMEONE. use a accident as a tool to criticize city councils. Ask Jeff King about all the measures the city takes
Kristy - I will continue to practice a four foot standard, thank you very much.
There is nothing more annoying to the workers in the ditch kneeling in two feet of slop then having a novice safety "observer" standing safely above grade reading passages to him from the OSHA field manual. Safety personnel with no real "hands on" experience tend to read from the handbook alot and it is really tough to take them seriously.
As someone who has worked in the trenches I don't need a tape measure or soil samples to tell me if an excavation is safe to enter. Every job is different and workers must adapt accordingly.
So, after viewing the photos from the March 31st excavation it appears to you stable and less than 5 feet in depth? Making assumptions and uneducated guesses like that is what usually gets people hurt.
I think you should try to get your information from the guys who actually get in the ditch and make the repairs.
10:44PM
In answer to all your blathering about the city government and their constant safety concerns, I can only ask why then did we even have the problem happen. If the people in charge have taken all safety concerns into consideration and provided everything ever needed for the city workers when they are doing their job, this would not have happened. It's easy to talk a good talk but that doesn't mean they are doing the walk.
When the SPW recently announced the trench box purchase, my only thought was "What has taken so long?" "Who was holding up this purchase?"
"Was it the Mayor or the Council that did not want to spend the money?"
We sure as H*** didn't have a hard time blowing up 30K for fireworks and we delayed spending only thousands for the safety box. What and who is the problem here?
To ALL, to this issue of a trench box .
How is it that we have a Mayor and SPW that are experienced in construction are not responsible of any of these safety issues. Don't they tell us they are experienced ????
I don't really care if we are JUST BUYING A TRENCH BOX, we MUST HAVE USED SOMETHING IN THE PAST OR MAYBE AS SAID IN THIS BLOG WE BORROWED A TRENCH BOX. Why not use it ?
Now to me , thank God no one was hurt or killed but the responsiblity for this kind of issue is not a city council or its members who meet weekly.
THE RESPONSIBILITY LIES SQAURELY ON THE SHOULDERS OF THE MAYOR AND SPW, they are on the job everyday (daily I would assume, at least we are paying them daily.)
For Steve he should close his mouth and let the proper / responsible people solve the problem, if there is one.
Lets not make this a blown up situation that no one in the blog can solve.
I really do not appreciate the constant blabering by those that are not part of the solution but could be part of the problem.
Elections have consequences, unfortunately sometimes it is bad consequences.
We do not have to continue to live with this circumstance. VOTE
I hope Steve never closes his mouth, He is the only one brave enough to bring these issues to light. He also knows what he is talking about. I don't think anyone on the council knows anything about construction pojects. Leave it for the people that know what they are talking about. It is too bad the people in the 4th ward didn't have the good sense to vote Mr. Weberski in for alderman. He would have brought some wonderful ideas to this city. What a mistake. g
I truly wish the blog could be a place of some productive discussioon, but all this is is a place of innuendo and gossip. A work accident happens and everyone wants to blame someone. Really? All the safety precautions in the world will not stop some accidents from happening. And it would be different of some of you actually knew what you were talking about, but this is just a neighborhood gossip center. That is why very few people ever take blogs and bloggers seriously.
Also, a citizen standing there at a job site reading from OSHA? And this person is qualified to do this why? If it were my worksite, he/she would have been promptly removed, as I assure you trespassing on the site talking to workers in the trench is a major problem. Think about it.
If you want to get something done, then vote. If you see something illegal, then report it. Otherwise, can you find something else to do than look at holes in the road and take pictures, and talk about what teenagers are doing in their jobs?
This picky little henpecking, gossiping bunch of bullshit gives people a good laugh, and mostly makes people feel sorry for you. At least Brian's blog has some thoughtful insight with an occasional intellectual opinion. Get a life!
5:00pm
I have already read your posting on Brians blog and considering your idea of what is important is not going to change what people want to talk about. In case you haven't noticed Steve or I may make a post of something we consider relevant and before you know it other peoples concerns that you consider silly have taken over the post and their idea is what is being talked about.
You cannot force people to discuss what you consider relevant, it just does not work.
If you have a topic you want discussed bring it up and I will gladly start a conversation for you on the topic of your choice but first be aware that the readers may not be interested in your topic.
why no mention of a cave-in in the local media??
anybody know where this happened at
To 10:44 p.m. - The criticism is justified because purchase of the Trench Box was not recognized as a priority. The criticism is justified because city employees have been working in unprotected excavations for far too long. The criticism is justified because we have a few aldermen and city officials with little or no interest in doing things professionally and responsibly.
Your comment about the city council "always" supporting safety measures is just a cop-out. We will never know for certain why the approval and purchase of a Trench Box was not seen as the priority it should have been. But the fact remains that it took too long and there is a reason for that.
You accuse me of wanting to "blame someone". I see it as holding city officials accountable. And, yes I do!
Jeff King is doing a fine job trying to introduce a professional safety program to elected officials and employees alike. Some of whom are just incapable of understanding the importance of it all.
8:04 PM
I know for a fact that the media was not made aware of what had happened.
There is absolutely no excuse for not purchasing the Trench Box. No excuse!
Appears to be time for the officials of Local 150 to call OSHA and ask them to come to Peru and make sure that the public works dept is up to OSHA Code. This would not only protect the city employees but also the citizens of Peru and the city's liability. The union which the employees of the PWD belong to owe them that much. As long as the union topic has been brought up, how much training are the city workers receiving at Local 150? I don't care to hear that a employee is scared to bring up safety problems because of repurcussions. Maybe the union should look into this situation.
This might be a dumb questions but who is the safety supervisor for the city of peru? when does the safety supervisor speak to the workers?And how much does a life cost?
Lois there are some very good comments and questions under the neglected tree heading about the stolen pool equipment.
Steve: Who do the city workers fear? The SPW? The Mayor? Surely you don't think the aldermen? I can't believe there would be repurcussions when your life is on the line. What I'd really like to understand is how did we get away with this serious offense for soooo many years?
12:26pm.....
One word....luck!
when using the word safety I cant believe that the employees would risk thier own safety and enter the trench. I am sure if the employees refused to enter under unsafe conditions they would not have to fear losing thier job.After all what is local 150 doing if that is the case. Plus no matter how much all the people who write day after day on this blog understand that no city offical would ever put the lives of any employee on the line. There were alot of faults both management and employee so lets look at the root cause and fix other than take cheap political shots at other people. We are talking about safety i hope and not someones agenda.
OREGON (AP) -- The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited an Oregon, Ill., excavating company for allegedly failing to protect workers from trench cave-ins.
The agency says a May inspection found one willful and three serious safety violations at a Forreston work site where Martin & Company Excavating was installing a water line in a trench.
Click here to find out more!
OSHA has proposed a $69,300 fine.
The agency says the alleged willful violation occurred when a damaged water line flooded the trench, which didn't have cave-in protection even though workers were installing a water line about 8 feet below grade.
OSHA standards mandate that all excavations 5 feet or deeper be protected against collapse.
The company may contest the citations and proposed penalties.
The question that is always posted her is how long has the safety been this way, The past adminstration had no use for safety. Safety was just a word not a believe or additude, however now current administration safety is begining to be treated as an additude but they still slip into the old way of things.I agree with current post safety is everyones responsibility, you first have to want to be safe. That is additude
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