On July 25th, worker Francisco Rodriguez Lopez died after a trench collapsed in Kansas City, Kansas. Rodriguez Lopez was operating an excavator for a fiber project when workers on the site noticed the excavator not moving for an extended period of time. Upon their investigation they found a trench collapsed with a small shovel nearby. KCK first responders believe the collapse happened around 2:15pm; Rodriguez Lopez was not found until 11:45 pm, where he was pronounced dead on the scene.
Rodriguez Lopez was employed by K&W Underground, a Kansas based contractor who was previously fined over $20,000 for trench related safety violations in 2022 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The trench measured around 16 feet wide and 25 feet deep at its deepest and was not sured or sloped according to OSHA standards. Some workers who lived near the job site questioned whether or not people should have been working in the trench after the area suffered several days of rain leading up to the accident. In an interview with local monopoly media KCTV5, worker Javier Rubio said, “It starts getting slippery and slick. It’s just never good to work in terrain like that.”
Companies planning to dig at sites like this one are usually required to have utilities marked before digging. However, the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities (BPU) noted three days prior to the accident: “Cannot mark sewer due to the rain from yesterday, it is not safe since there is a drop off and I do not want to risk injury in case it collapses.”
OSHA is said to be actively investigating the incident. However, companies like K&W Underground simply factor in OSHA citations as part of their cost of production, rendering the organization toothless. Fines will not stop capitalists from increasingly exploiting workers to maximize their profit.
Francisco Rodriguez Lopez was a beloved husband and father. When recalling the time spent with him, one friend shared, “He was the type of person who would help others without being asked,” and, “His loss is a huge blow to everyone who knew him.”
To support Rodriguez Lopez’s family, click here.
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