Excavating Company Deemed Severe Violator After Trench Fatality

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited an excavating company in Mason, Ohio, after an employee was killed in a trench collapse. JK Excavating & Utilities Inc. faces proposed penalties of $202,201, and has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program. OSHA cited the company on June 18. Zachary Hess, 25, was killed in the trench collapse on Dec. 28 as he worked to connect a sewage pipe to a home under construction in Morrow, Ohio, WKRC news reported at the time. OSHA investigators determined that employees at the construction site were working ...