A Texas construction company has admitted guilt in connection with a deadly trench collapse that claimed the life of a young worker, marking a rare instance of corporate accountability in workplace fatalities.

Austin-based D Guerra Construction LLC reached a plea agreement with Travis County prosecutors this week following the death of 24-year-old Juan José Galvan Batalla of Bastrop, who was buried when a 13-foot trench collapsed in October 2021. Another worker was seriously injured.

Investigators revealed that the trench had already partially collapsed earlier that day, yet supervisors ordered the men back inside. Galvan Batalla succumbed to traumatic asphyxia a week later, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner.

“At the end of the day, we simply cannot tolerate employers in Travis County who create such unsafe work conditions that people who work can become seriously injured or die,” said Travis County District Attorney José P. Garza, emphasizing that stronger accountability is needed to protect workers.

The company, indicted in 2024 alongside supervisor Carlos Alejandro Guerrero on charges of criminally negligent homicide, ultimately pleaded guilty in July to a lesser misdemeanor charge of assault causing bodily injury. The case against Guerrero remains pending.

Garza noted it was the first time since the early 1990s that a corporation in Travis County pleaded guilty over a worker’s death. The indictments were spurred in part by an investigation from NPR, Texas Public Radio, and 1A, which found that 250 U.S. workers died in trench collapses between 2013 and 2023—most of which safety experts say were preventable. Only 11 employers faced criminal charges in those cases.

OSHA’s 2022 investigation confirmed that D Guerra Construction failed to use federally required protections, such as a trench box, and neglected to train workers on excavation hazards. The agency fined the company nearly $140,000 and referred the case to prosecutors.

As part of its plea deal, D Guerra Construction agreed to sweeping reforms. The company must implement enhanced trench safety training for workers and supervisors, establish an anonymous reporting system for safety concerns, and hire two full-time safety officers. An independent monitor approved by prosecutors will oversee compliance for the next year.

“What is really important to us, and what was really important to the family, is that we had processes in place to try to change the culture of this workplace,” Garza said. “There will be specific training for trenches and how to prevent trench collapse.”

For Galvan Batalla’s mother, Rosa Isela Batalla Morales, the agreement offers a measure of closure.

“Although nothing will bring him back, I think this will help many people who work in construction,” she said. “Construction companies should be more careful with their staff and not let them enter without protection just for the sake of fulfilling a contract.”

She added that she found solace in the company’s guilty plea: “All I asked for was justice. I never asked for anything bad for anyone. I think I’ve had justice. It did comfort me a little that the company said ‘yes, I’m guilty,’ because they were guilty—for me—and now they’re guilty before the law.”

Garza said he hopes this case sends a message across Travis County and beyond: employers must put worker safety above profit.

Originally reported by Josh Peck in NPR.