NY, NJ, PA Contractors Face $900K in Fines for Excavation Violations

Contractors in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania face a combined $900,000 in proposed penalties for excavation violations on two separate jobsites, including a fatal trench collapse, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

20-Year-Old Worker Dies in Trench

A Pennsylvania contractor has been cited with six violations, including two repeats, after a worker died in a trench collapse April 2 in Franklin County. The company faces proposed penalties of $254,884.

Dalen Martin, 20, of Smithsburg, Maryland, was installing a storm sewer system 12 feet below ground when part of the trench wall collapsed and engulfed him in soil, according to OSHA.

His employer, Jonas David Wagoner, doing business as J.D. Wagoner Excavating of Chambersburg, was issued citations October 6 by OSHA for the following:

• Failure to protect workers from cave-ins, willful violation.
• Failure to provide construction hazard-prevention training to employees, serious violation.
• Failure to establish a safe means for workers to exit the excavation, serious violation.
• Failure to keep materials at least 2 feet from the edge of an excavation, serious violation.
• Failure to restrain side materials from becoming roll-in hazards, serious violation.   

Wagoner also faces two repeat violations:

• Failure to assign a competent person to conduct daily trench inspections.
• Failure to remove employees from hazardous conditions.

The company was cited previously for trenching violations after workers were in a 7-foot-deep trench without cave-in protection March 18, 2025, in Waynesboro, according to OSHA. The trench had also not undergone a daily inspection before workers entered. The company was fined $9,500.

Martin, who died in the April 2 cave-in, was honored in his hometown of Smithsburg, where a memorial tractor ride was held in May in his memory.

Martin was a volunteer for the Smithsburg Tractor Society, which focuses on promoting the future of agriculture while embracing and preserving the past. He would participate in the organization’s historical farming operations.

“We lost one of our hardest working and most enthusiastic supporters on Thursday in a trench accident at his work,” posted Chandler Fishack on the society’s Facebook site April 4. “We not only lost a huge supporter, but I lost a best friend.”

6 Contractors in NY, NJ Face Fines of $650,000

A general contractor and five subs on a mixed-use commercial building project in Monroe, New York, face a combined $648,094 in proposed penalties for 28 violations, including for exposing workers to potential cave-in, OSHA reported October 13.

OSHA investigations beginning April 29 at the 408,000-square-foot Monroe Commons project, also known as Magna Square development, revealed workers in an excavation with a “steep, unstable embankment nearly 75 feet high which was not adequately sloped or shored.”

The planned four-story development includes retail, office space and a 39-room hotel on 18 acres.

OSHA reports it issued a total of 23 serious and five willful citations to the project’s general contractor and five subcontractors for failing to protect employees from cave-in, struck-by and chemical hazards; neglecting to shield employees from falling or rolling rock and soil from an excavation face; and not ensuring daily inspections of excavations were conducted by a competent person. 

The general contractor, Advanced Plan and Build LLC, based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, faces proposed penalties of $175,444 for “willfully exposing employees to cave-in and struck-by hazards from an unprotected excavation” and “willful failure to ensure that the excavation, which was between 21 and 75 feet deep, was designed by a registered professional engineer,” according to OSHA.

These subcontractors on the project also were cited:

• Parkstone Inc. and Obstacle Systems Inc., operating as Drip Drop Waterproofing Inc., of Chester, New York — willfully exposing employees to cave-in and struck-by hazards from an unprotected excavation and serious violations related to lack of fall protection and for chemical hazards. Proposed penalty: $198,615
• The Paving Masters LLC of Mills, New York — willfully exposing employees to cave-in and struck-by hazards from an unprotected excavation and willful failure to ensure that the excavation was designed by a registered professional engineer. Proposed penalty: $188,684
• Century Max Industries Corp. of Manorville, New York — serious violations for failing to protect employees from cave-in and struck-by hazards. Proposed penalties: $46,340

• DelValle Contractor of Mills, New York — serious violations for failing to protect employees from cave-in and struck-by hazards, lack of fall protection and for chemical hazards. Proposed penalties: $19,151

• Prime Structure Inc. of Brooklyn — serious violations for failing to protect employees from cave-in and struck-by hazards. Proposed penalties: $19,860

All the contractors cited have 15 business days from receiving receipt of their citations and penalties to request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.