New York Legal Authority
A man was rescued from a trench accident on Sunday in Coatesville VA Medical Center, west of Philadelphia. The man had been working on a project at the construction site involving an emergency generator. He was working in the trench on a pipe, when dirt began to slide. The dirt buried him up to his neck.
Trench accidents at New York construction sites in are often deadly. If proper safety measures are not employed to protect workers, dirt or earth that appeared solid and stable minutes earlier can suddenly collapse, often crushing or suffocating a worker in the trench before anyone can react.
The dangerous element of the trench collapse construction accidents is that the material may appear easy to move, and lull workers in complacency. A supervisor or other employee may decide to skip safety precautions because it is just sand. However, these materials behave like a liquid when they begin to collapse and flow around an individual.
Sand, dirt or gravel, like corn or grain in an elevator, can encase an individual in seconds and begin exerting extreme pressure, crushing their abdomen and making breathing incredibly difficult, even when their head is exposed.
As this case demonstrates, it took two and half-hours to extricate the man from the trench, which fortunately, or ironically, was located on grounds of a hospital. They noted that emergency response was quick, which is always helpful in trench accidents.
There are Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety rules that govern the digging of trenches, and if you are on a site where those rules are ignored, you should contact OSHA to report the violation.
Source: Philly.com “Man rescued in hospital construction accident,” Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman, August 25, 2013
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Construction worker survives being buried in trench accident
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