Page 59 - Confined Space Training - Student Manual 2021

are clear. Workers must be trained to test the air to ensure it is safe before each, and every, time
they enter a confined space.”

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) has cited Jimerson Underground Inc. and L&B Vactor Services LLC for
alleged violations of safety standards following the November deaths of two L7B Vactor Services
workers who suffocated when they entered an oxygen-deficient sanitary sewer in Edinburg to
clean it out.

”These tragic deaths should have been prevented,” said Secretary of Labor Elain L. Chao. “To
ensure that workplace fatalities continue to decline, we must make sure that employers protect
employees from hazards. The significant total penalties of $100,600 send a strong signal that
worker health and safety is of the utmost importance to this Administration.”

Jimerson Underground Inc. of Sugarland, TX, a sanitary sewer installation and maintenance
company and general contractor, was issued on willful and eight serious citations. Proposed
penalties total $78,200.

Several of the alleged violations involve “permit required confined spaces” or permit spaces.” A
workspace is “confined” when its configuration hinders the activities of employees who must enter,
exit, and work in it. For work in a confined space that has such serious hazards as moving
machinery parts or lack of breathable air, safety standards require a written “permit” that names
the hazards and details how to deal with them.

The willful citation issued to Jimerson Underground was for failing to have a written permit space
entry program; failing to properly isolate, flush or eliminate the toxic atmosphere while ensuring
proper ventilation through pre-entry testing; and failing to provide rescue equipment. The alleged
serious violations included failure to inform the subcontractor of the presence of permit spaces
for which entry could only be made through compliance with a permit space entry program; failure
to prepare an entry space; failure to provide permit space training to all employees; and failure to
inform employees of all the hazards associated with entry into a permit space.

L&B Vactor Services of Edinburg, TX, a sewer maintenance company, and subcontractor, was
cited for eight serious violations with penalties totaling $22,400. The alleged serious violations
include failing to post danger signs warning against the confined space hazards, failing to provide
personal protective equipment, ventilation, atmospheric testing and continuous monitoring and
failing to train employees on permit space entry.

Willful violations are those committed with an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to, the
Occupational Safety and Health Act and regulations. A serious violation is one in which there is a
substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which
the employer knew or should have known.
CAN CONFINED SPACES BE DANGEROUS?

Confined Space Training for Entrants, Attendants & Supervisors 59