Local News in Brief : Firm’s Owner Jailed in Worker’s Death
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The owner of a Lancaster pipeline company was sentenced to 30 days in County Jail and fined $6,750 for the death of one of his employees in a work site accident, prosecutors said Friday.
Virgil Simmons, 44, of Thousand Oaks was also placed on three years’ probation when sentenced Thursday by Municipal Judge Howard Swart. Simmons will serve his jail time in a work furlough program that will allow him to be free from custody during the day to work.
His company, Shamrock Pipeline Inc., was also fined $6,750 and placed on three years’ probation. Simmons and his company pleaded no contest last month to violating a Labor Code violation that calls for building supports on the sides of trenches deeper than 5 feet.
The charges stemmed from the May, 1987, death of employee Leroy R. Eibes, 21, of Palmdale, who was killed when an unsupported 7-foot trench collapsed at a construction site in Palmdale. Simmons was excavating the trench with a backhoe at the time of the accident.
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