Cal/OSHA has cited a Riverside, California construction company $66,000 for serious workplace safety violations that resulted in the death of a worker when a 17-foot-deep trench he was in collapsed. The agency determined that Empire Equipment Services, Inc. did not properly classify the soil and failed to correctly slope the excavation.
On May 9, two Empire Equipment Services workers were installing sewer pipes at a Lake Forest residential construction site when a 30-foot-wide section of the trench’s sidewall sloughed and collapsed. Only one of the workers was able to escape.