Incident date: 2018-11-21
NAICS industry code: 237130

On November 21, 2018, two employees entered a trench to manually locate a fiber optic cable that had been cut. The trench was 9'8" deep and 5'6" wide and had no protective systems in place.  At approximately 8:30 p.m. the east wall of the trench caved in, trapping both employees. Both employees were hospitalized for nerve damage to their lower extremities.

Hazard classification:
code_event: title: Excavation or trenching cave-in
code_source: title: Ditches, channels, trenches, excavations
code_nature: title: Traumatic injuries to nerves, except the spinal cord, unspecified
code_body: title: Lower extremities, unspecified
severity: low