North Louisiana construction company faces penalty from OSHA for 2022 death of employee

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued one willful and three serious citations to a Northeast Louisiana construction company following an investigation that found the company failed to put safety measures in place to protect workers.

In October 2022, a trench collapsed in Ruston, Louisiana, where a worker for Skylan Construction was in a 10-foot deep excavation to upgrade to a sewer lift station for existing sewer services when the trench collapsed.

The worker was taken to Northern Louisiana Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The citations were issued for:

Willful

• Each employee in an excavation was not protected from cave-ins by an adequate protective system.

Serious

• Not having means for employees to exit from an excavation while working on an underground sewer pipe.

• Not conducting atmospheric testing where employees were exposed to respiratory hazards while working on a sewer pipe in an excavation greater than 4 ft. deep.

• Not prohibiting excavation below the level of the base or footing of any foundation or retraining wall that could be reasonably expected to pose a hazard to the employees.

The total penalties are estimated to be worth $35,940.

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This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: OSHA penalizes Louisiana construction company for 2022 employee death