Posted with permission from Confined Space, a newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues.
Death by Trench:Equipment World has just completed a special report on trench hazards and the dozens of preventable deaths that happen ever year. Most chilling is the piece on survivors who tell of the terror they felt being buried under tons of soil. And there are heros, like Jay Herzmark in Washington who worked with the Center for Progressive Reform to convince the King County (Washington) Prosecutor’s Office to file criminal charges against Phillip Numrich, owner of Alki Construction where Harold Felton was killed in a 10 foot deep trench in 2016. You really need to take some time to read this significant piece of work. Then make some copies and hand them out to any construction workers you see in unsafe trenches.