Employer Charged With Manslaughter – OSHA Penalizes Company Nearly $1.5 Million

“That isn’t an accident… That isn’t negligence… That’s wanton and reckless conduct, and we believe it cost two men their lives.”

by, Robert Box, exclusive to Corridor News

A Boston employer has been charged with two counts of manslaughter in the deaths of two employees and OSHA has issued penalties to the company that reach nearly $1.5 million as a result of a tragic trench collapse last Fall.

On October 21, 2016, two workers with Atlantic Drain Services, Inc., located in Bellingham, Massachusetts, were killed when their unprotected 12-foot deep trench collapsed, trapping both men from the waist-down.

The collapsed trench walls caused an unsupported fire hydrant adjacent to the excavation to topple, breaking the water line and spewing water into the trench rapidly.  Within seconds, Robert Higgins and Kelvin Mattocks were submerged and died.

“The deaths of these two men could have and should have been prevented,” said Galen Blanton, the New England regional administrator of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). “Their employer, which previously had been cited by OSHA for the same hazardous conditions, knew what safeguards were needed to protect its employees but chose to ignore that responsibility.”

OSHA’s citation and notice of penalty letter to Atlantic Drain Services, Inc., issued on April 11, 2017 cited 18 willful, repeat, serious and other-than-serious violations of construction safety standards totally $1,475,813 in proposed penalties for alleged violations that include:

• Failure to install a support system to protect employees in an approximately 12-foot deep trench from a cave-in and prevent the adjacent fire hydrant from collapsing.
• Failure to remove employees from the hazardous conditions in the trench.
•  Failure to train the workers in how to identify and address hazards associated with trenching and excavation work.
• Failure to provide a ladder at all times so employees could exit the trench.
• Failure to support structures next to the trench that posed overhead hazards.
• Failure to provide employees with hardhats and eye protection.

OSHA cited Atlantic Drain Services trenching worksites for similar hazards in 2007 and 2012.

As a result of the tragedy, the company and its owner, Kevin Otto, are each charged with two counts of manslaughter for the workers’ deaths by the Suffolk County District Attorney, Daniel F. Conley.

A grand jury also returned additional indictments charging the individual and corporate defendants with one count of misleading an investigator under the state’s witness intimidation statute and six counts of concealing a record under the evidence tampering statute.

“We allege that Mr. Otto and Atlantic Drain Services willfully, wantonly, and recklessly failed to take the standard safety precautions that could have averted that tragedy. And we further allege that they provided fraudulent records in response to federal subpoenas during the investigation that followed – and failed entirely to provide those records to the Suffolk County Special Grand Jury,” said Mr. Conley.

The DA went on to say, “That isn’t an accident. That isn’t negligence. That’s wanton and reckless conduct, and we believe it cost two men their lives.”

According to OSHA and the Suffolk County District Attorney, documentation was subpoenaed from Atlantic Drain Services, and when the documentation was received from the employer, it appeared to have been “doctored.”

“Those documents appear to bear forged dates and signatures indicating that employees had attended various safety trainings required after the earlier OSHA violations in 2007 and 2012, when in fact they had not. The defendants then concealed those documents from the Suffolk County Grand Jury,” said Conley.

Robert Box is the owner of Safety First Consulting and is an exclusive contributor of SM Corridor News. Safety First Consulting helps businesses identify OSHA compliance issues in their workplaces, manage their safety programs, and we become accountable for the results. In addition to offering custom written safety programs for companies, Safety First Consulting provides required safety training, industrial hygiene sampling, noise sampling, and workplace inspections. You can read more from Robert Box under Business.