OSHA Reports 35 Trench Deaths in 2022 – More Than Double 2021 Toll

2022 may go down as one of the deadliest in over a decade for fatal trench collapses.

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration reports that at the end of November, 35 workers had died in trenching and excavation work, which is more than double the number in 2021.

 

“Unfortunately, we are seeing a sudden increase in the number of workers dying in trench and excavation collapses,” said OSHA Area Director Casey Perkins in Austin, Texas, after a contractor was cited in the state following the deaths of two workers in a collapse in June.

 

The statistics for the first six months of 2022 had already indicated it would be a deadly year when OSHA reported that by the end of June, 22 workers had died in trenches ­– more than all of the trench-collapse deaths in 2021. 

 

Deaths in trenches continued into the second half of the year. In announcing proposed six-figure penalties in December for two sets of fatal trench cave-ins in Texas, OSHA also reported that 35 deaths in trenches and excavations had occurred as of November 30. (OSHA investigations, which can take up to six months, are still underway on some of these cases to confirm their causes.)

 

A search of OSHA online investigation reports indicates 17 workers died in trench collapses in 2021.

 

Recent media reports show that the final month of 2022 also proved deadly, with four separate trench-collapse deaths occurring in December. The incidents occurred in Colorado, Illinois, Georgia and Arkansas.

 

In looking at data from OSHA and the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics from 2011, it appears that 2022 was the deadliest year. Previously, 2016 had been the deadliest of that period for trench and excavation collapses, according to OSHA and BLS statistics.

During that year, OSHA made a similar announcement about an alarming number of trench deaths, after 23 workers reportedly died in trench collapses. BLS statistics indicate that the number of deaths in trenches and excavations in 2016 reached as high as 33, but it’s not clear if all were deaths due to “trench collapses,” or if some died by other means inside a trench or excavation.

 

OSHA often cites the BLS statistic that 166 workers died in trench cave-ins between 2011 and 2018. That indicates an average of about 21 deaths each year.