Kansas contractor faces over $300K in fines after trench collapses on two workers

A plumbing company in Cheney, Kansas faces fines of over $300,000 after two workers became trapped when a trench collapsed in Salina.

The company, Precision Plumbing LLC, was hired as a subcontractor to work at a site in Salina. The general contractor was Wichita-based Multicon, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Labor.

A call to Precision Plumbing was returned by a man who said the company was negotiating the amount of fines. He did not want to be named.

An investigation done by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that an employee in a 9-foot deep trench was buried under dirt and rocks when a trench wall collapsed while the worker was trying to install a line to the municipal sewer, the release said.

The company’s foreman entered the trench and tried to dig the worker out when he “became buried up to his knees when the trench wall collapsed further,”the release added.

“For more than an hour, first responders worked to rescue the two workers,” OSHA said. “Both survived one of the construction’s industry’s most serious hazards.”

The listed address in OSHA documents was for Salina South High School at 730 E. Magnolia St.

OSHA inspectors determined that the trench had no protection against cave-ins and that the “employer allowed soil piles and equipment within 2 feet of the excavation’s edge,” the release said. “OSHA found Precision Plumbing’s violations of these federal trench safety regulations willful.”

A citation summary document containing the six OSHA citations totaled to a penalty amount of $333,949.

OSHA also cited Multicon for one serious violation of failing to protect the employees. The agency proposed penalties of $14,063, the release said.

The agency said Multicon “had identified the trench collapse hazards to the Precision Plumbing foreman but left the site before making certain the subcontractor corrected the hazard,” according to the release.