Contractor with history of violations fined $1.3M in deaths
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday announced $1.3 million in fines to “serial violator” Atlantic Coast Utilities LLC/Advanced Utilities Inc., which the agency says caused the deaths of two workers at a dig site in Boston in February.
On Feb. 24, at a sewer repair worksite in downtown Boston, two workers died after a dump truck struck and pushed them into a nine-foot-deep trench.
For their employer, Atlantic Coast Utilities LLC/Advanced Utilities Inc., its predecessor company and owner, the incident “is the latest in a long history of ignoring the safety and health of its employees,” according to OSHA, whose follow-up investigation led to the discovery of 28 alleged violations.
Proposing a total of $1.3 million in penalties, OSHA says it is using its egregious citation policy, which allows the agency to propose a separate penalty for each instance of a violation.
Chief among the violations was the company’s refusal to train its workers to recognize and avoid work-related hazards and its failure to conduct worksite inspections to identify and correct hazards, including the risks of being struck by construction vehicles and other traffic, crushed or engulfed in an unguarded trench, and being overcome by oxygen-deficient or toxic atmospheres in the trench and an adjacent manhole.
Prior to the February incident, OSHA inspected Atlantic Coast Utilities LLC/Advanced Utilities Inc. and its predecessor company six times and cited them for a total of 14 violations, including willful, repeat and serious violations, with fines of $81,242, of which $73,542 was unpaid and has been referred to debt collection.
The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
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