A Chattanooga-based construction company has been fined by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration over a fatal trench collapse at a job site in Cleveland, Tennessee, in August.
Dillard Construction Inc. was fined $78,000 stemming from two citations for four serious violations found on Corporate Drive in Cleveland, according to an agency report on the fatal incident that happened Aug. 22, 2024. The worker killed in the incident has not been identified.
Four of Dillard Construction’s employees were working at a 9-foot deep trench at the work site — two men on excavators on the ground and two in the trench with hand tools for leveling, the report said.
(READ MORE: Construction worker dies in trench collapse in Tennessee)
The two employees in the trench “worked without cave-in protection, and no ladder was in the excavation for employee egress,” the report said. As the two employees worked in the trench, the east wall caved in and trapped one man, leading to his death.