BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. (AP) — Federal worker safety regulators last year charged a plumbing company in a suburb of Chicago with a ditch collapse that killed a worker.
Nikodem Zarembra, 27, of Elmwood Park, lay buried for more than an hour and stopped breathing in the ditch in Buffalo Grove on December 12, authorities said. He later died in a hospital. At the time of the collapse, he was attempting to repair a water main in a residential area.
Inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that his employer, Rooter Solutions Inc. of Burr Ridge, had failed to install anti-collapse protection in the trench and that head protection was not required, the agency announced Friday.
The trench was about 13 feet (3.9 meters) long, 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide, and 8 feet (2.4 meters) deep, according to OSHA. Protection systems are required for trenches deeper than 1.5 meters.
The company was served with a subpoena for one willful violation and one serious violation with proposed penalties of nearly $36,000, WFLD-TV reported.
Someone who answered a call to Rooter Solutions Friday for comment hung up.
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