Roslyn contractor fined $135,000 for deadly 2020 trench collapse in Upper Brookville
The federal workplace-safety regulator has fined a Roslyn contractor $135,612 for last year’s deadly trench collapse in Upper Brookville that killed two workers, who were buried under mud and sand during the installation of a septic tank.
Deniz Dos Santos Almeida, 57, and Max Antonio Turcios, 46, were stuck in a five-to-seven-foot wall of the mud and sand after the 30-foot trench collapsed. The men were working for the contractor, RC Structures Inc. of Roslyn.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced on Wednesday that the contractor had agreed both to pay the fine and cease digging excavations. The regulator also criticized the contractor for failing to protect the workers and ignoring a warning from an employee on site that the trench posed a cave-in hazard.
"A trench can collapse suddenly and with great force, crushing and burying workers in an instant. Amid such dangerous conditions, employers must follow all excavation safety requirements and remove employees to prevent tragedies like this," the regulator’s Long Island area director, Kevin Sullivan, said in a news release.
Read more: https://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/trench-collapse-deaths-osha-fine-1.50202629
