OSHA cites Bucksport firm

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Robert Wardwell & Sons Construction Co. of Bucksport for three repeat violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and has proposed fines totaling $12,800.

According to C. William Freeman III, OSHA area director for Maine, the alleged violations were discovered during an OSHA inspection of an excavation job site on Route 15 in Orland during August. The company had been cited for similar violations at other work sites in November 1988 and July 1989.

The current citations involve the following three alleged violations:

A $1,400 penalty is recommended because the company failed to protect its employees with helmets while they were working in a 6-foot-deep trench where they were exposed to the danger of head injury from impact, or from falling or flying objects.

The employer was cited for failing to provide safeguards against cave-ins for employees working in a trench 6 feet deep, 3 feet wide and approximately 30 feet long. The offense carries a fine of $10,000.

The third violation was for failing to provide a stairway, ladder, ramp or other safe means of egress within 25 feet of lateral travel for employees working in a 6-foot-deep trench. This would carry a fine of $1,400.

The Bucksport construction company will have 15 working days after receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to contest them before the Independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Joe Wardwell, vice president for operations at the company, said that it was likely that the allegations would be contested. He said that the company’s lawyer was studying the charges.

Freeman said that there was no excuse for a construction firm experienced in trenching operations to endanger its employees the way Robert Wardwell & Sons had done. This is especially true, he said, when the company previously had been cited by OSHA for similar violations and were, therefore, well aware of the agency’s standards for trenching safety.

“OSHA has a nationwide special emphasis program on trenching safety,” Freeman said, “because it only takes a split second for an unstable and unprotected evacuation to bury workers in a cave-in. This type of tragedy has happened time and time again, but employers must learn that their negligence will not be tolerated.”