Here’s another reminder of how quickly a trench can turn deadly and how important it is to be prepared. Is your rescue team prepared for such an incident?

When firefighters arrived at the scene of a construction trench collapse near Covington (Louisiana) back in May, they could see two pairs of feet sticking out of the wet, sandy clay at the bottom of the 10-foot-deep trench. But only one voice was calling for help.

The frantic rescue effort that followed, interrupted by safety concerns and bad weather, would bring one man safely to the surface. His co-worker did not survive.

Firefighters immediately jumped in and began trying to dig the men out from nearly a foot of dirt that had tumbled down on top of them from the sides of the trench. But as the operation dragged on, they realized that being in the trench could compound the danger. The depth of the hole combined with the sandy clay made for a perilous work situation. Moreover, huge piles of excavated dirt loomed over the side of the trench, adding to fears of another collapse.

The weather didn’t help. During the rescue, a rainstorm drenched the area and then was replaced by baking sun.

To lower the risk, firefighters had to delay rescue efforts while others brought in sheets of plywood to reinforce the sides of the trench. A ladder was laid across the top and another was lowered to the bottom. Firemen tossed water down to their comrades, and a large vacuum truck was brought in to suction out debris.

Two hours after the firefighters arrived, the surviving worker — stripped of his clothes except for a pair of blue and red striped shorts — was placed into a rescue basket and lifted slowly to the lip of the trench. He was immediately tended to by emergency medical technicians, who transferred him to a stretcher.

The injured worker, who has not been named, was alert throughout the rescue and was able to speak with the men working to free him, officials said.

But there were fears that his medical condition could deteriorate quickly after he was pulled from the dirt. The weight of the soil could have been acting like a “big tourniquet,” said St. Tammany Coroner Charles Preston, an emergency physician. In that type of situation, he said, when the pressure caused by a heavy weight is removed, the flow of blood throughout an injured body can cause severe problems.

In this case, however, Preston said the worker was doing as well as could be expected, adding that his belly was soft, which indicated that the weight of the earth had not prevented his blood from flowing while he was buried.

Once the worker was taken away, the operation turned from rescue to recovery. The body of a 24-year-old was removed about 5 p.m., after more than four hours of being buried in the trench.

Sheriff Jack Strain, briefing reporters after the first worker had been removed, said his office would investigate whether all proper safety protocols had been followed at the site. Strain noted the presence of three trench boxes — large metal frames with two panel sides connected by thick bars — stacked just feet from where the collapse occurred but said there were none at the cave-in site itself.

“I don’t know why those weren’t in the ground, but those things will be looked into,” Strain said. State agencies may also investigate the incident, he said.

(Excerpts, photos and videos from a story in The New Orleans Advocate by Faimon A. Roberts III - click to read full story)

Preparation is Key

Is your agency or rescue team prepared for this type of incident? Who will be responsible for performing the rescue, and how quickly can they respond? Do they have the proper equipment and training to do the job while protecting themselves?

Also, do you have the availability of advanced life support personnel who can respond to the scene? Injuries sustained from trench incidents can be more severe (internal) than just bruising and broken bones. Crush Syndrome/Compartmentalization Syndrome can kill a “rescued” victim!

Keep in mind, someone was responsible for acting as the Competent Person at this site, or at least, should have been. Are your supervisors properly trained to identify potential trench hazards? If you use contractors, do you assume they have the proper training and equipment while they are working on your site?

Don’t underestimate the dangers of trench work – or the dangers posed to emergency response personnel. Make sure your people are prepared! Learn the latest trench safety and rescue techniques at our upcoming Trench Rescue Course at the Roco Training Center.

 

 

Washington, D.C. – In response to requests from the construction industry, OSHA is delaying full enforcement of its recently promulgated Confined Spaces in Construction Standard to allow employers additional time to comply with the rule.

The final rule, issued May 4, has requirements similar to the Permit Required Confined Spaces Standard for general industry, including employee training and atmospheric monitoring.

The new construction rule is scheduled to go into effect Aug. 3. Between that date and Oct. 2, construction employers will not be cited for violating the new standard if they are making a "good faith" effort to comply and are in compliance with training requirements under the new or old standard.

According to OSHA, good faith efforts include scheduling training for employees, ordering necessary equipment to comply with the new standard, and taking alternative measures to protect employees from confined spaces.

Nearly 800 annual serious injuries will be prevented under the new rule, OSHA estimates.

In response to the death of a 23-year-old construction worker in a trenching incident in Anchorage, the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development is highlighting the importance of training workers on safe trench work and excavations.

State regulations require employers to ensure workers are trained to recognize and avoid hazards related to any trench work or excavations in which the depth of the site is at least 4 feet. Employers also must make sure workers adequately enter and exit trenches, in addition to taking proper measures for shoring and sloping protection.

An Anchorage Fire Department search-and-rescue team, police and medics responded to the incident shortly after 1 p.m. on June 16, 2015.

The construction worker had been working on a sewer pipe in a trench that measured roughly 7 feet deep by 15 feet across when it collapsed and buried him. His co-workers tried to extricate him and did get him out of the trench, but his injuries were just too severe. The 23-year-old victim died at the scene.

OSHA has launched an investigation into the workplace accident according to a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Sources: National Safety Council Newsletter (nsc.org) and Alaska Dispatch News (adn.com).

Despite progress made over the past several decades in reducing the number of occupational deaths, an average of 12 workers are still killed on the job every day, Mary Vogel, executive director with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, said during the press conference.

The National COSH recently reported that broader use of hazard prevention strategies and threats of stiffer consequences for workplace safety violations will help reduce the number of annual worker deaths, a group of safety advocates stated during an April 23 press conference in Longmeadow, MA.

Criminal prosecution of employers for workplace violations is extremely rare. Vogel said that although increasing prosecutions would not eliminate all workplace fatalities, the strategy should be used "when appropriate."

Hazard prevention strategies based on the Hierarchy of Controls are another effective method for ending workplace deaths, according to Peter Dooley, senior consultant with National COSH. During the press conference, Dooley listed several recent workplace fatalities he claims could have been prevented with such strategies.

National COSH also announced the release of its annual report, "Not an Accident: Preventable Deaths, 2015." The report includes case studies of recent worker deaths, prevention strategies and National COSH's policy platform.

It was released in advance of Workers Memorial Day, which will take place April 28. On that day, National COSH plans to release a database detailing the circumstances of 1,500 worker deaths.

Article Source – National Safety Council News Alert

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today issued a final ruleto increase protections for construction workers in confined spaces. 

Confined spaces rule (29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA) could protect nearly 800 construction workers a year from serious injuries and reduce life-threatening hazards…Construction protections now match those in manufacturing and general industry. 

Manholes, crawl spaces, tanks and other confined spaces are not intended for continuous occupancy. They are also difficult to exit in an emergency. People working in confined spaces face life-threatening hazards including toxic substances, electrocutions, explosions and asphyxiation.

Last year, two workers were asphyxiated while repairing leaks in a manhole, the second when he went down to save the first – which is not uncommon in cases of asphyxiation in confined spaces.

“In the construction industry, entering confined spaces is often necessary, but fatalities like these don’t have to happen,” said Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “This new rule will significantly improve the safety of construction workers who enter confined spaces. In fact, we estimate that it will prevent about 780 serious injuries every year.”

The rule will provide construction workers with protections similar to those manufacturing and general industry workers have had for more than two decades, with some differences tailored to the construction industry. These include requirements to ensure that multiple employers share vital safety information and to continuously monitor hazards – a safety option made possible by technological advances after the manufacturing and general industry standards were created.

“This rule will save lives of construction workers,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “Unlike most general industry work sites, construction sites are continually evolving, with the number and characteristics of confined spaces changing as work progresses. This rule emphasizes training, continuous work site evaluation and communication requirements to further protect workers’ safety and health.”

On OSHA's website, it also states than an employer whose workers are engaged in both construction and general industry work in confined spaces will meet OSHA requirements [for 1910.146] if that employer meets the requirements of 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA - Confined Spaces in Construction.

Five (5) key differences in the construction rule, and several areas where OSHA has clarified existing requirements:

1. More detailed provisions requiring coordinated activities when there are multiple employers at the work site. This will ensure hazards are not introduced into a confined space by workers performing tasks outside the space. An example would be a generator running near the entrance of a confined space causing a buildup of carbon monoxide within the space.
2. Requiring a competent person to evaluate the work site and identify confined spaces, including permit spaces.
3. Requiring continuous atmospheric monitoring whenever possible.
4. Requiring continuous monitoring of engulfment hazards. For example, when workers are performing work in a storm sewer, a storm upstream from the workers could cause flash flooding. An electronic sensor or observer posted upstream from the work site could alert workers in the space at the first sign of the hazard, giving the workers time to evacuate the space safely.
5. Allowing for the suspension of a permit, instead of cancellation, in the event of changes from the entry conditions list on the permit or an unexpected event requiring evacuation of the space. The space must be returned to the entry conditions listed on the permit before re-entry.

OSHA has added provisions to the new rule that clarifies existing requirements in the General Industry standard. These include:

1. Requiring that employers who direct workers to enter a space without using a complete permit system prevent workers’ exposure to physical hazards through elimination of the hazard or isolation methods such as lockout/tag out.
2. Requiring that employers who are relying on local emergency services for emergency services arrange for responders to give the employer advance notice if they will be unable to respond for a period of time (because they are responding to another emergency, attending department-wide training, etc.).
3. Requiring employers to provide training in a language and vocabulary that the worker understands.

Finally, several terms have been added to the definitions for the construction rule, such as "entry employer" to describe the employer who directs workers to enter a space, and "entry rescue", added to clarify the differences in the types of rescue employers can use.

Host Employers, Controlling Contractors, and Entry Supervisors

The rule makes the controlling contractor, rather than the host employer, the primary point of contact for information about permit spaces at the work site. The host employer must provide information it has about permit spaces at the work site to the controlling contractor, who then passes it on to the employers whose employees will enter the spaces (entry employers). Likewise, entry employers must give the controlling contractor information about their entry program and hazards they encounter in the space, and the controlling contractor passes that information on to other entry employers and back to the host. As mentioned above, the controlling contractor is also responsible for making sure employers outside a space know not to create hazards in the space, and that entry employers working in a space at the same time do not create hazards for one another’s workers.

Click for an update on this ruling

Download 29 CFR 1926 Subpart AA Confined Space in Construction Ruling

Source: www.osha.gov

Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.osha.gov/confinedspaces/faq.html