OSHA Finds Company Failed To Protect IL Plumber Who Died After Being Buried For An Hour

BUFFALO GROVE, IL — Just six months after a 27-year-old Elmwood Park man died after a trench he was working in collapsed, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have found the company he worked for failed to keep him protected during the job. Nikodem Zaremba, a plumber, was buried under nine feet of dirt after a trench he was working in with another man collapsed at a Buffalo Grove worksite on Dec. 12, 2022.

Buffalo Grove firefighters, along with fire personnel from other area departments, were able to eventually uncover Zaremba and remove him from the collapsed trench at the home in the 1000 block of Aspen Drive. Zaremba, who had been buried for more than an hour, would later be pronounced dead at Northwest Community Hospital.

Inspectors with OSHA recently found Burr-Ridge based Rooter Solutions Inc. had failed to install cave-in protection that would have protected the workers in the trench and also did not ensure the use of required head protection. The company was cited for one willful violation and one serious violation with proposed penalties of $35,940.

Zaremba was down about seven feet from the surface on a job where the plumbing contracting business was fixing a residential water line damaged during excavation when the trench's walls collapsed, crushing him fatally. Another employee in the trench with him at the time escaped the trench unharmed.

"Trench collapses are one of the construction industry's most deadly hazards. Soil can shift suddenly and bury a person under thousands of pounds of dirt and rocks," said OSHA Chicago North Area Director Sukhvir Kaur on the regulatory agency's website. "This worker's death was one of 39 caused by fatal injuries in trench collapses in 2022."

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