SAN FRANCISCO – A construction company whose employee died when the trench he was working in collapsed in San Francisco last year has been cited by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health for safety violations.
D’Arcy & Harty Construction Inc. committed “willful-serious” violations that led to the employee’s death on Sept. 28, 2023, and has been fined $371,000, Cal/OSHA officials announced Thursday.
The company was fined for “failing to provide a protection system for employees working in the trench and for failing to provide a means of escape, such as a ladder in the event of a collapse – hazards that the employer had already anticipated weeks earlier.” was warned,” the company said. Cal/OSHA.
“Excavations are known hazards and trenches must be assessed, shored or shielded before workers enter to protect them. This worker’s death is tragic because it was avoidable,” said acting CAL/OSHA chief Debra Lee.
The 25-year-old man who died was identified as Javier Romero of Alameda County.
Romero became trapped under 8 feet of earth when the trench collapsed near Oak and Divisadero streets.
He worked on part of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Panhandle and Inner Sunset Large Sewer Rehabilitation Project to upgrade existing sewer lines and sewer laterals in the area, SFPUC officials said at the time.
