Peter Dillon, 54, of Gypsum, owner of the now-defunct A4S LLC, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, a Class 4 felony, on Thursday. He turned himself in on Jan. 25 after a Summit County judge issued an arrest warrant for him two days prior, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration .The incident happened on Nov. 16, 2021.
According to The Denver Post, OSHA investigators found that other trenches on the project had caved in on previous occasions, and that A4S Construction, the employer, allegedly “refused to install trench protection systems, exposing workers to serious hazards.” OSHA issued three willful citations to A4S LLC for"not ensuring the excavation was inspected by a competent person, failing to instruct employees on the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and not having a trench protective system in place," it stated. In addition, investigators issued a citation for not having a safe means of egress within 25 lateral feet of employees working in a trench.
"OSHA has pledged to work with state prosecutors to raise the stakes in appropriate trenching death cases, and this is an example," she said.