Business

In your judgment and from an ethical point of view, what responsibility does Moeves Plumbing have to Patrick Walters’ family?

Responsibility to do right was in the hands of the company. They were sited earlier for safety hazards and also fined and still didn’t clean up their act. Peter’s death was not the first incident to happen. If Moeves had followed the guidelines that had been set for the trenches his death may not have occurred. They owe everything to this young mans family because of negligence he lost his life.

In your judgment and from an ethical point of view, does the developer with whom Moeves Plumbing was contracted bear any responsibility for the accident that took the life of Patrick Walters?

Yes, ethically they all should have been held accountable. OSHA had sited this company before and I feel that they cut a deal with the owner Moeves back in 2002 because she was a neighbor of OSHA area director Richard Gilchrist, a charge OSHA denies.

Moeves Plumbing had a written safety policy that required all trenches over four feet deep to be sloped and shored and to be inspected daily. From an ethical point of view do you feel that this was adequate to protect the workers?

On May 31, 2002, a local fire chief called the Cincinnati OSHA office to complain that men were installing a storm drain in an unsafe trench. Every trench is a potential death trap. Trench walls could give way at any time, often without warning. This is why federal safety laws require employers to take special precautions for trenches deeper than five feet. The walls must be sloped back at a safe angle or shored up with bracing. If a trench box is used instead, it must be big and sturdy enough to withstand the tremendous forces of a collapse. A “competent person” someone trained in excavation safety must inspect the trench before work begins and then daily thereafter. Mr. Sheldon had watched and taped Patrick and other workers at the site. He shut the job down on that...