“正常”的活动如何了Three Fatal Construction Accidents

Three tragedies that appear to have sprung from routine habits

A Kentucky trench excavation was braced by a trench box, creating a feeling of security, but the trench box was too short. During a collapse, spoil piled at the edge of the trench poured in, killing a 19-yearold laborer, according to a report from the state’s Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program.

PHOTO: KENTUCKY FACE PROGRAM

April 5, 2017

Richard Korman

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At these jobsites, sloppy practices seem to have been routine, or normalized, and deadly. A Kentucky trench excavation (above) was braced by a trench box, creating a feeling of security, but the trench box was too short. During a collapse, spoil piled at the edge of the trench poured in, killing a 19-year-old laborer, according to a report from the state’sFatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE)program.

Oregon project
PHOTO: OREGON FACE PROGRAM

At an Oregon project (above), a pile being lifted with a vibratory hammer clamp fell when the clamp suddenly opened, killing the crane operator. Three years earlier, the employer dropped another pile in a similar mishap, but no one was injured, said a report from Oregon’s FACE program.

Half-ton elevator cage section
PHOTO: KENTUCKY FACE PROGRAM

Also in Kentucky, a half-ton elevator cage section (above) fell off a flatbed delivery truck during unloading, killing the truck driver, who was standing in the “fall shadow” during the unloading operation, the state’s FACE program reported.

副主编理查德•科曼ENR的编辑新利luckRisk Review newsletter since 2012, helps run ENR's business coverage, selects ENR's commentary and op-ed viewpoint submissions and oversees editorial content on ENR.com. He recently completed a fellowship on drone safety with the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. In 2015 he won the Timothy White Award from American Business Media for investigations of individual surety fraud and workplace bullying. Richard's freelance writing has appeared in the Seattle Times, the New York Times, Business Week and the websites of The Atlantic and Salon.com. He admires construction projects that finish on time and budget, pay before the earth completes its annual orbit of the sun, record zero injuries and assign risk to parties who control an activity or willingly finance the risk.