State Collects OSHA Penalties Five Years After Deadly Accident

It took nearly five years, but the Labor Services Division of Iowa Workforce Development received more than $700,000 from a Missouri-based company penalized for violating occupational safety and health standards while working on the Des Moines sewer system in July 2002.

Workers Daniel Grasshoff, 25, of St. Charles, Mo., and Brian Burford, 19, of Lemay, Mo., died after being overcome by hydrogen sulfide gas while working on the east side sewer project for Insituform Technologies USA Inc. Five other workers were seriously injured when they attempted to rescue their two co-workers. According to state inspectors, neither Grasshoff nor Burford was wearing a respirator or hooked up to any type of rescue line to pull them to safety in the event of an emergency. Autopsies showed that they drowned in sewage at the bottom of the the 15-foot trench after being overcome by the fumes.

The Labor Services Division, also known as Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration, requested a total of $808,250 in penalties after the accident, asserting, among other things, that Insituform failed to ensure that workers had ventilation respirators, ladders and harnesses which would have assisted in pulling the workers to safety. In addition, state officials said that the company had not adequately trained employees on procedures for permit-required confined spaces entry. The amount included $770,000 in penalties for 11 willful violations and $38,250 for nine serious OSHA violations.

The road to the large penalty was not an easy one. The company contested the fines to the Employment Appeal Board, which referred the case to an administrative law judge. The judge held up most of the penalties, but dismissed or combined others. This resulted in the fine being reduced to $158,000.

That decision was appealed by Insituform to the board, which reinstated all but one of the violations and increase the penalties to $733,750. From there the company requested review by the district court, records show. The court upheld the board’s decision, but reduced the fines back to $158,000.

Both Insituform and the Employment Appeal Board appealed that decision, and the Iowa Court of Appeals dismissed all but two of the violations, ruling that the violations were based on the wrong safety standards. This court ordered the company to pay a total penalty of $4,500 on the remaining two violations.

The Iowa Supreme Court, which heard the state’s appeal last winter, reversed previous rulings in the case. The state’s highest court awarded $733,700 to the state in February, stating the company violated safety rules during the repairs. The court found the standards applied to Insituform’s employees and that the use of those standards does not violate the U.S. or Iowa constitutions. The court also ruled that evidence supported the Employment Appeal Board’s decision that the company violated the standards and that the assessment of penalties was appropriate.

“This decision will serve as a precedent if similar issues are raised in future cases regarding interpretation of OSHA law,” said Dave Neil, interim director of Iowa Workforce Development.

He praised the work of state inspectors who investigated the accident, and attorneys Gail Sheridan-Lucht with the division and Rick Autry, formerly of the attorney general