Cal-OSHA Rules Against Fine for Vista Company in Deaths of 2 Workers

State investigators have cited a Vista company in the deaths in June of two workers killed when the walls of a well they had been cleaning caved in, burying them under 18 feet of granite blocks and dirt.

Donald Nielsen, a safety engineer with the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal-OSHA) in San Diego, said Curtis Drilling Co. and its president, Gary Methling, had been cited but would not be fined in connection with the deaths.

“There will be no monetary penalty assessed because the employees of the company went into the shaft on their own and were not ordered down by the foreman, who had left the site to make a telephone call,” Nielsen said. “The employees violated the (state) construction safety orders by entering an unsafe excavation site on their own, and the criteria necessary for a monetary fine against the company do not exist.”

Instead, Nielsen said, Curtis officials have been instructed to make “certain corrections,” such as improving worker supervision and training, to better ensure that employees do not go into unprotected areas. Also, a record of the accident will be retained in Cal-OSHA files and the company will face fines if the corrective measures are not taken.

The key to his finding, Nielsen said, was that the walls of the well, which was being cleaned of silt, had been shored up with a steel cylindrical shield throughout the work day. Under state law, such protective casing is required in shafts over five feet deep.

But after work was completed that day, the shield was removed. Later, two workers reentered the shaft to retrieve some tools, and that was when the walls collapsed. Their bodies were buried for four days as workers struggled to clear rubble from the deep irrigation well at the Highland Valley Ranch near Poway.

“The company had a safety program, and it was pretty well spelled out that you don’t go down there without the shield in place,” Nielsen said. “But unfortunately, while the supervisor was away, these guys went in to get some tools left in the bottom.”

Loy Cook, area manager of Cal-OSHA’s consultation division, said that “the single criterion that would allow an employer to escape culpability in something like this is independent action by an employee.”

To prove that, employers must show they have furnished a safe work site, instructed their employees on applicable safety guidelines and provided disciplinary actions for workers who violate safety rules and regulations. Curtis Drilling Co. apparently had taken those measures, Cook said.

Killed were Rigoberto Bautista, 19, and Jose Birrueta, 27, undocumented workers from Mexico.