🗞️ A Modified Excavator, a School Crawl Space, and a Preventable Death
Federal regulators cited a Texas contractor and a staffing firm after a worker died beneath an elementary school when a modified mini excavator, stripped of its rollover protection, pinned him against a concrete beam.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited D L Bandy Constructors Inc. and Pacesetters Personnel Services in connection with the death of a worker at Converse Elementary School, near San Antonio. On January 7, 2026, the employee was using a mini excavator to clear dirt from the school's crawl space when he became pinned between the machine and a concrete beam and later died of his injuries.
Investigators found that D L Bandy Constructors had stripped the excavators of their rollover protective structures and added fabricated parts so the machines could fit inside the crawl space. That finding produced a willful citation, OSHA's most serious classification, applied when a violation is committed with intentional disregard for, or plain indifference to, worker safety. The contractor also received fifteen serious violations tied to confined space failures, among them the absence of atmospheric testing, inadequate ventilation, insufficient worker training, and the lack of rescue procedures. Pacesetters Personnel Services, which supplied temporary labor for the job, received two serious violations of its own, for failing to enforce entry procedures and to train its workers on confined space hazards.
OSHA proposed penalties of $276,399 for D L Bandy Constructors and $23,170 for Pacesetters. Both companies have fifteen business days to comply, request a conference with OSHA, or contest the citations before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, an independent body that adjudicates disputed OSHA cases.
The case fits a broader pattern in American workplace safety data. Confined space incidents make up a small share of overall workplace deaths but remain disproportionately lethal. Federal statistics recorded more than 1,000 confined space fatalities nationwide from 2011 to 2018, with construction workers accounting for the majority. Texas, home to a large concentration of construction and energy activity, has consistently ranked among the states with the highest number of such incidents.
Key Points
- A worker died January 7, 2026, after becoming trapped between a mini excavator and a concrete beam in the crawl space of a Texas elementary school.
- OSHA issued D L Bandy Constructors Inc. one willful violation for removing rollover protection from excavators and modifying them to fit the confined space.
- The contractor also received fifteen serious violations related to confined space hazards, including missing atmospheric testing and rescue procedures.
- Staffing firm Pacesetters Personnel Services received two serious violations for failing to train temporary workers on confined space entry.
- Combined proposed penalties total $299,569.
- Both companies may contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
- Confined space incidents remain a leading, if statistically small, category of workplace fatalities, with construction workers bearing the largest share.
Primary Source Author: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs (OSHA)
Primary Source: US Department of Labor cites Texas contractor, staffing company after worker suffers fatal injury in elementary school crawl space
