An Chicago area sewer and water contractor has been banned by a federal court from engaging in trenching, excavation, construction or related work ever again after repeatedly exposing workers to hazardous trenching conditions.
The unusual ruling came after the contractor — Mike Neri, 79, of Elk Grove Village, Illinois — refused to pay fines totaling more than $110,000 in connection with six safety violations resulting from an investigation by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
According to investigators, on several occasions Neri failed to prevent workers from cave-ins during trenching operations. Two of the violations were called “willful” because they were committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law’s requirement or with plain indifference to worker safety and health, according to an OSHA news release.
Willful violations can carry a fine of up to $70,000, depending on the size of the company. Neri’s excavation business had been cited for similar violations in 2009 and 2011. The company shut down in 2013, according to court records.
Violators Will Be Prosecuted
Nick Walters, regional administrator for OSHA’s Chicago office, said the court’s decision lets other contractors know that they have to play by the rules or face the consequences.
“The court has sent a clear message that Mike Neri, like all businesses, has a legal and moral responsibility to protect workers on the job,” Walters said. “OSHA will pursue all avenues to ensure employers, such as Neri, who are recalcitrant and continue to violate safety standards, learn that the law will be upheld.”
OSHA said it pursued the lifetime ban against Neri because he had been uncooperative and refused to pay fines. He refused to acknowledge trenching violations had occurred, even after agency investigators presented him with photographic evidence.
In 2014, he was held in a federal jail for 23 days for contempt, but was eventually released after posting a personal recognizance bond.
Not Allowed to Own Equipment
The Feb. 10 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit required Neri to pay $110,440 in fines and banned him from “owning, leaving, obtaining or in any way possession any excavation equipment for use in construction.”
Neri’s attorney, Mary Higgins Judge, told the Chicago Tribune that the contractor had dug ditches at construction sites for more than 45 years and only occasionally hired others to help him when jobs were too big for him to handle alone. She said Neri was arrested shortly suffering a heart attack and that the court orders he was accused of ignoring had never been properly served and were returned to the court undelivered.
Rules for Trenching
OSHA trenching standards require all excavation deeper than 5 feet to be protected against collapse.
Soil is extremely heavy and can be fast moving if not supported. As single cubic foot of soil weighs about 114 pounds and a cubic yard weighs about 1.5 tons, or about the same as a Volkswagen Beetle.
A worker buried under only a few feet of soil can be crushed by so much pressure that the lungs can’t expand and suffocation can occur in as little a three minutes. Soil that is wetter and heavier can crush the body in just a few seconds.
Protective systems reduce the likelihood of soil cave-ins that can fall or roll into an excavation. They also are used to support nearby structures to prevent collapse caused by the excavation.