Dec. 3, 2025
TUMWATER — The Rotschy Inc. construction company is facing just over $170,000 in fines after a 3,000-pound equipment bucket fell off the arm of an excavator, crushing a worker at a southwest Washington jobsite.
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The injured employee was working in a trench box and giving hand signals to the excavator operator when the bucket fell off the excavator arm, crushing the lower half of his body. The operator attempted to lift the bucket off the worker using the hydraulic arm of the excavator when the bucket slipped, crushing the worker a second time.
Firefighters eventually rescued the worker who was hospitalized for more than a month with severe injuries.
The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) investigation found there were two excavators at the Woodland, Wash. job site, including the one involved in the incident. Both were equipped with a quick coupler attachment which allows the operator to detach and connect different attachments without leaving the cab. The quick couplers on both excavators were missing a vital safety latch that’s designed to prevent the bucket from falling off in case of an operator error or equipment failure.
“Quick couplers are standard in the industry, but removing the safety latch from them certainly isn’t,” said Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
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“These actions demonstrate a blatant disregard for the rules designed to keep workers safe. This young man’s life will be forever impacted by this incident that was entirely preventable,” said Blackwood.
The site superintendent and site supervisor both told an L&I inspector they knew the safety latches were missing. A Rotschy maintenance worker told the inspector he’d seen quick couplers with missing safety latches over the past year.
When Rotschy checked for the safety latches on all of its other excavators after the incident, 13 did not have the required safety latches.
Those weren’t the only safety violations found at the Woodland excavation site. There wasn’t a walkway for workers to safely cross over the trench and the supervisor, who was supposed to ensure safety at the site, was allowing workers to jump across the 10-foot-deep trench.
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There was also no cave-in protection around an upright sewer manhole located inside the trench. L&I cited Rotschy for two willful serious, two repeat serious, and two serious violations totaling $170,136. As a result, Rotschy will be added to the Severe Violator’s list and will be subject to increased scrutiny by L&I.
Additionally, L&I opened a second inspection concurrent to the excavator incident after an investigator responding to the initial call reported concerns about possible confined space violations. In that case L&I fined Rotschy $13,770 on Nov. 10 for five serious confined space violations relating to the upright sewer manhole.
L&I classifies a violation as serious when it could lead directly to the serious injury or death of a worker, and as willful when the employer knew or should have known the rules but did not follow them.
In both cases, Rotschy is appealing the citations and fines.
Money collected from fines goes into the workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund, helping workers and families of those who have died on the job.
Originally reported by Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.
