Dive summary:

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors were combining a national focus on trench safety and a local-office focus on road safety when they visited a site where Henkels & McCoy workers were repairing a water line under a highway in in Neptune, N.J., in April.
• The result, OSHA said, was a citation for six serious safety violations and a proposed $42,000 fine.
• Henkels & McCoy was supposed to have, but did not:
  • have a competent person making frequent and regular inspections of the job site, materials and equipment
  • make use proper traffic control signs and devices that protect workers
  • put up three signs to give advance warning about work being done ahead
  • follow mandatory requirements and usage guidance for hand signaling devices
  • make sure workers were using proper to hand signaling procedures
  • set up a flagger station properly

From the article:

A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known. ...