Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 95CA017, 1996 May; :1-5
A 51-year old Hispanic male laborer (victim) died after being trapped in soil up to his neck as a result of a trench that caved-in. The victim was digging out the bottom of the trench in order to lay a pipe. There was water in the bottom of the trench from ground water collection. No trench box was used and the trench was not shored, benched or sloped. The soil had been previously disturbed and no initial hazard assessment had been done. The victim and another laborer who was in the trench noticed that the wall was collapsing and were running for the ladder at the end of the trench when the west wall caved-in. The CA/FACE investigator concluded that, in order to prevent future occurrences, employers should: 1. Assure that the sides of all excavations are shored, laid back to a stable slope, or provided with other equivalent protection where employees may be exposed to moving ground or cave-ins. 2. Have a competent person frequently inspect excavations in which the soil was previously disturbed or where there are variations in the moisture content of the soil, loading due to equipment or stored materials, or vibration from equipment or traffic. 3. Train employees, including periodic refresher training, to be aware of and understand the hazards of the job. 4. Perform an initial hazard assessment of the job prior to beginning work and when there is a situation change that presents different hazards.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.