Trench collapse is at least second Utah construction death of 2019
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The deadly trench collapse on Wednesday is at least the second construction-related death in the area this year.
In February, a man died after falling inside an elevator shaft at the new airport.
The most recent data available show 43 deaths on the job in 2017 and nearly 58,000 injuries that year, according to the Utah Labor Commission.
Most of the deaths — 18 — were transportation-related.
“Real concerns are falls, and we’ve seen a lot of falls recently and trench-type accidents,” said Eric Olsen, spokesman for the Utah Labor Commission.
Alaina Mitchell, occupational safety training manager for the nonprofit Utah Safety Commission, said she got into the line of work because of a death at her previous job.
“It was a 21-year-old,” she said. “I’m going to call him ‘kid’ because I think that’s a kid age.”
“He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and ended up, lost his life,” Mitchell added.
The death got her thinking about what the company was doing to keep everyone safe.
The largest concerns are workers getting caught in between or struck by something, as well as falls and electricity, according to the Utah Labor Commission.
“We don’t take that moment to just stop and think of what could hurt us,” Mitchell said.
She now leads a variety of classes, training people to think of potential dangers before and during a job, so everyone can make it home.
“My heart breaks because that person isn’t going home to their loved ones,” Mitchell said, “and you play the ‘What if?’ also. ‘What if I had done something differently?’”
Download the 2News mobile app for iPhone or Android.
