Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Concrete Construction Company
Training affirmed and backfill violation reduced
Concrete Construction Company was cited after OSHA inspected two excavations beside a public road during a water-line project. The Commission rejected the company's inspection objections because the work was visible from a public area, the foreman consented to the inspection, and the company…
Woolston Construction Co. Inc.
Unprotected landfill trench violation was willful
Woolston Construction excavated a trench for a methane gas venting system at a New Jersey landfill. A cave-in killed a Woolston employee and an employee of another subcontractor after the nearly vertical trench walls collapsed. The trench had cracks, sloughing material, prior collapses, and a bowed…
Trumid Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench-support and hard-hat violations affirmed
A Trumid employee was fatally injured when a trench wall collapsed during pipe-laying work, and the company did not report the accident to OSHA. The ALJ vacated the trench-support item after measuring depth from a bench below the original ground level, but affirmed a hard-hat violation. The…
Lowe Construction Company
Trench ladder citation vacated under specific egress standard
Lowe employees used a ladder to climb the vertical lower portion of a deep trench, then stepped off and walked up the sloped wall. OSHA cited the general construction ladder rule because the ladder ended 6 to 8 feet below ground level instead of extending three feet above the landing. The…
Burlington Northern Railroad Company
Fatal trench case remanded for the railroad agency's views
A trench beside Burlington Northern's tracks collapsed while employees installed a sewer line, killing one employee. The judge affirmed several serious trenching items, but Burlington Northern argued that Federal Railroad Administration regulation displaced OSHA's authority. The Commission found…
Andy Anderson, d/b/a Andy Anderson Irrigation & Construction
Trench-cave-in violation upheld, penalty cut to $150
This employer was installing sewer pipe in a 70-foot trench that ran 6 to 8 feet deep with nearly vertical, unshored walls and no ladder for exit. OSHA cited a serious violation for failing to shore or slope the trench under 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(c) and for failing to provide an adequate means of…
Advance Pipeline, Inc.
Trench violations and $1,080 penalties affirmed
Advance Pipeline installed a water main in soft, unstable soil without shoring, sloping, bracing, or other support. Testimony established that an employee worked in a trench section about seven feet deep, and the Commission noted that the standard applied at five feet or more. It also affirmed…
Dick Corporation
Rebar and fuel-safety violations affirmed
A rod-buster and foreman worked about 22 feet above a cement floor with protruding reinforcing steel, without safety belts or impalement protection. The Commission held that positioning and securing a rebar column against a wooden form was still placing and tying reinforcing steel under the cited…
Joe Richter, Contractor, Inc.
Trench citations and $265 penalties affirmed
Three employees worked in an eight-foot-deep trench beside a heavily traveled road, with a vertical unshored wall, water in the trench, and spoil near an edge. They lacked head protection, and the earth ramps serving as exits were wet, unstable, and partly obstructed. The Commission found that pipe…
Fanning & Doorley Construction Co., Inc.
Willful trench violation affirmed
Fanning & Doorley was installing underground telephone ducts in Lincoln, Rhode Island, when an unshored trench wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission credited evidence that the trench was more than six and one-half feet deep and that the foreman knew the shoring requirement but…
Broshear Contractors, Inc.
Commission requires a trench exit whenever employees are inside
Broshear Contractors employees were working under supervision in a trench at least four feet deep. A ladder was lying beside the trench, but no ladder or equivalent exit was available inside until the OSHA inspector identified the violation. The company argued that the ladder had been removed only…
Craig D. Lawrenz & Associates, Inc.
Three trenching violations and $330 penalty affirmed
Craig D. Lawrenz & Associates installed water and sewer systems and was inspected at two trenching locations along a Wisconsin highway. The judge found that excavated material was not set back or retained from a water-pipe trench, the sides of that trench were inadequately supported or sloped in…
Navarro Contracting Company
Serious excavation charges vacated, spoil-bank and exit items affirmed
Navarro Contracting was installing a large sewer pipe in a deep excavation and adjoining trench at a Fort Worth shopping-center project. OSHA alleged unstable walls, inadequate precautions near backfill, insufficient trench protection, heavy-equipment loading, a spoil bank too close to the edge…
Brown & Root, Inc.
Trenching citations vacated for lack of proof
OSHA cited Brown & Root after inspecting an underground utility project where employees were installing pipe in a trench. The citations alleged that the trench lacked an adequate exit and that its sides were not properly supported or sloped. The judge found that employees could reach an ascendable…
Environmental Utilities Corp.
Trench violation reclassified as serious
Environmental Utilities installed sewer pipe in trenches in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Two employees remained in the Marietta Pike trench after two of three trench jacks were removed, leaving the trench inadequately protected from a cave-in. The Commission changed the judge's classification from…
W. E. Dalton, M. L. Dalton & J. B. Truelove, d/b/a E. L. Dalton & Co.
Trench timbering and warning-vest items affirmed
E. L. Dalton & Co. performed trenching work beside a public street and near railroad tracks in Irving, Texas. The Commission affirmed a serious trench-timbering violation because the company used three-quarter-inch plywood where the applicable table required larger timber, and it sustained a $100…
Stimson Contracting Co.
Three trench items affirmed and duplicate item vacated
Stimson Contracting employees installed sewer pipe in a trench that was 17 feet deep and four feet wide at the bottom. The company placed excavated material too close to the edge, did not provide an adequate exit, and left a crawler crane above and near the trench without additional shoring or…
Quillian Pipe Company, Inc.
Trench violation reduced from willful to serious
Quillian Pipe employees worked in an inadequately protected trench that was more than five feet deep while installing underground pipeline in Macon, Georgia. OSHA had recently explained trenching requirements to the company's president after an earlier inspection, then cited the later condition as…
Don Helvig, d/b/a Don Helvig Excavating
Trench protection and exit violations affirmed with reduced penalty
Don Helvig Excavating was digging a sewer trench in a North Dakota mobile-home park. The trench was about seven feet deep in soft or average soil, with the lowest three to four feet nearly vertical, inadequate sloping above, and no shoring or bracing. Although the soil was dry and collapse was not…
Par Construction Company, Inc.
Unsupported trench violations affirmed
Three Par Construction employees worked in a trench that was more than five feet deep and dug in loose, unstable soil. The trench had not been shored, braced, sloped, or otherwise supported, and the company had not provided an adequate exit. The judge affirmed a serious trench-support violation…
D. Federico Co., Inc.
Trench exit and spoil-pile items affirmed
D. Federico was installing a sewer in a 14-foot-deep trench where an employee worked inside an open-topped wooden manhole chamber. The Commission held that soil stored within two feet of the trench exposed the employee to a hazard and that neither an eight-foot ladder nor a loose backfill ramp…
Gordon Construction Company
Excavation case remanded after employer-status ruling
Gordon Construction supplied a backhoe operator and two laborers to the North Little Rock Sewer Department for a sewer-line excavation through solid rock. The administrative law judge vacated the citations after finding that the municipal department, rather than Gordon, employed the workers. The…
Paul Hutchinson & Sons
Pneumatic-tool and trench citations vacated
Paul Hutchinson & Sons was the general contractor on a sewer-line excavation where subcontractor employees drilled rock in a trench. The subcontractor's pneumatic tool lacked the required positive connection to its hose, but the Commission found that Hutchinson neither created nor controlled that…
W. L. Cobb Construction Co.
Excavation citations reduced to two nonserious violations
W. L. Cobb installed storm-drain pipe in an opening that was wider than it was deep and therefore qualified as an excavation rather than a trench. The judge vacated the trench-specific ladder and unstable-soil citations, including two proposed willful penalties totaling $6,615. He affirmed a…
Lige Dickson Co.
Wet trenches required sloping and safe exits
Lige Dickson Company excavated long dewatering trenches in wet, unstable fill at a Tacoma, Washington, worksite. Portions of two trenches were 9 to 10 feet deep, inadequately sloped, and unshored, while an employee worked along the trench bottoms. The company also provided no ladders or steps, and…
The Bearden Co.
Unsupported trench violation affirmed as serious
The Bearden Company, a plumbing contractor, excavated a sewer-line trench in unstable soil with vertical, unsupported walls. Its foreman lowered an employee into the 8-to-10-foot-deep trench to inspect the sewer main before shoring equipment arrived. The employee later reentered the deep area and…
Coughlan Construction Company, Inc.
Two trench-exit violations and $90 penalty affirmed
Coughlan Construction Company was a Boston trenching contractor whose employees worked in two trenches deeper than four feet without ladders or steps. At one site, employees climbed shoring cross braces to exit, and at the other they pulled themselves up and over the trench side. OSHA cited the…
Jerald F. Hughes, Inc.
Unprotected 16-foot trench violations affirmed
Jerald F. Hughes, Inc. was installing a large sewer line in a trench that was 16 feet deep. Employees entered the trench while its loose, cracked sides were not shored, sloped, braced, or protected by the trench box available at the site. The judge treated the evidence as establishing a violation…
Paul L. Heath, d/b/a Paul L. Heath Contracting Co.
Trench and PPE citations affirmed with $525 in penalties
Paul L. Heath Contracting excavated a sewer trench that was about 55 feet long, six to eight feet deep, and nearly vertical, without shoring or adequate sloping. An OSHA inspector testified that he saw the company's employee climbing out of the trench at a point about seven feet deep. The employee…
A. L. Amaral Company
Trench citations affirmed and serious penalty reduced
A. L. Amaral employees built a catchbasin in an excavation more than six feet deep with unstable fill soil, nearly vertical sides, no shoring, and no ladder. The judge treated the catchbasin excavation as part of a trench even though it was wider than it was deep. He affirmed a serious…
F. F. Green Construction Co., Inc.
Serious trench citation and $900 penalty affirmed
F. F. Green installed a water main in an Alaska trench that was about eleven and a half feet deep in wet, sandy, unstable soil. At least two employees worked where the trench was not adequately shored or sloped, and the citation also included ladder-access and flammable-liquid-container items. The…
M-CO Equipment Co., Inc.
Crane fire-extinguisher item reinstated
M-CO Equipment was installing a sewer line at an Arizona construction site. A required fire extinguisher for a crane was kept in a pickup truck normally about 150 feet away, and the truck moved around the worksite. The Commission held that this did not make the extinguisher accessible and available…
C. N. Flagg & Company, Inc., d/b/a Northeastern Contracting Company
Serious trench violation affirmed, willful citation vacated
Flagg was installing sewer pipe in a trench more than 15 feet deep. The trench boxes and sheeting did not protect the bottom portion, where employees worked, and the Commission upheld the finding that the soil was unstable. It affirmed a serious trenching violation and its $700 penalty from the…
State Contracting Co., Inc.
Hard-hat item affirmed, trench penalties reduced
Two State Contracting employees worked in a deep trench that lacked required shoring or sloping, had no ladder for exit, and exposed them to falling material without hard hats. The employer had supplied hard hats and required their use, but the parties tried whether the employees actually wore…
Shaffer Construction & Engineering Co.
Fatal trenching violations affirmed
Eight employees worked in an approximately eight-foot-deep trench cut into soft, wet, unstable soil near highway and railroad traffic. The walls were almost vertical, had no shoring or bracing, and one wall collapsed and killed an employee. The Commission affirmed a serious violation of the…
Hartwell Excavating Company
Trench citations modified and penalties reduced
Hartwell Excavating was installing a sewer line in an Idaho trench that exceeded five feet in depth and had unsloped sides in sand-and-gravel soil. OSHA also cited excavated material stored at the trench edge, missing exit ladders, a worker positioned beneath part of a backhoe bucket, an incomplete…
Puterbaugh Enterprises, Inc.
Trench and recordkeeping violations affirmed
Puterbaugh Enterprises laid sewer pipe in a trench about ten feet deep and two feet wide with vertical walls and no shoring, bracing, sheeting, or sloping. The trench caved in and killed an employee who had returned to resume pipe-laying work. The Commission affirmed the serious trench violation…
Hawkins Construction Co.
Excavation citation vacated for lack of employee exposure
Hawkins Construction was the general contractor on an industrial-park project and had excavated an area for sewer work. The excavation was not properly sloped and excavated material was stored too close to its edge, but only a subcontractor's employees were present when OSHA inspected. The…
Frank Irey, Jr., Inc.
Willful trench violation and $5,335 total penalties affirmed
Frank Irey performed underground electrical-conduit work in a trench about seven-and-one-half feet deep. The trench was not shored or sloped in soft or unstable material, and an employee died when a side collapsed. The administrative law judge classified the trench violation as willful because the…
Stephen Adamowich d/b/a Terryville Sanitation Service
Procedural vacatur reversed
OSHA cited Terryville Sanitation for an unsupported nine-foot trench and failure to provide a ladder, with proposed penalties totaling $805. The first judge vacated the citations because the Commission received the employer's notice of contest after the seven-day transmission period. The Commission…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.