Page 57 - Confined Space Training - Student Manual 2021

related serious violations are for failing to purge or ventilate the confined space before entry,
exposing the workers to an asphyxiation hazard, and not providing necessary rescue and
emergency equipment for employees that were overcome inside a permit-required confined space.

In addition, OSHA issued serious citations to Higgins and McKenna Contracting for failing to:
• Develop and implement a written hazard communication program for a worksite in
which employees were exposed to dangerous chemicals and gases.
• Use a calibrated direct-reading device to test for toxic gases, creating an
asphyxiation hazard.
• Created and document the confined space entry permit.
• Provide training to employees in the safe performance of their assigned duties in
permit-required confined spaces.
• Provide a guardrail around the manhole opening, exposing employees to a fall
hazard.

“The hazards of working in manholes are well established, but there are ways to make it
safe,” said Condell Eastmond, the OSHA area director in Fort Lauderdale. “Three
employees needlessly lost their lives and others were injured due to their employer’s
failure to follow safe work practices.”

Sources: www.eshtoday.com & www.osha.gov

BRADENTON, FL – Failing to protect employees working in a confined space, which caused the
death of one worker an injured three others, could cost Bradenton-base E.T. MacKenzie of Florida,
Inc. $68,700 in penalties, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety Health
Administration.

The fatality occurred September 27 at a new subdivision in Nokomis, FL, when a work crew of
th
six including three brothers, accidentally broke a grinder pump, allowing sewage to enter a 23-
foot deep, 4-foot-wide temporary lift station in which they were working.

When one of the brothers was sent into the confined space to make repairs, he was overcome by
toxic fumes. A second brother quickly entered and ties a rope around him, so he could be lifted
to safety. While another employee pulled the first victim to safe ground, the rescuer sank beneath
the sewage. A third brother then entered the deadly lift station, located his brother, and was pulled,
along with his brother’s body, to the surface. The three surviving employees were treated for
exposure to hydrogen sulfide.

“This tragic series of events could have been avoided if all work had stopped as soon as the high-
pressure feed broke off the grinder pump,” said Les Grove, OSHA’s Tampa area office director.
“If the employees had been properly trained, they would not have re-entered the hazardous
confined space.”

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