OSHA Fines Texas Contractor, Staffing Firm Over Fatal Crawl-Space Death
ISHN reports that the U.S. Department of Labor has cited a Texas building contractor and a staffing company following the death of a worker in a confined crawl space at Converse Elementary School. OSHA opened its investigation after a Jan. 7, 2026 incident in which a D L Bandy Constructors Inc. employee, operating a mini-excavator to clear dirt from beneath the school, became trapped between the machine and a concrete beam and died from the injuries. Pacesetters Personnel Services had supplied temporary labor for the dirt-removal work.
OSHA hit D L Bandy Constructors with one willful violation for stripping rollover protective structures off mini-excavators and welding on fabricated parts to squeeze the equipment into the crawl space. The company also drew 15 serious violations tied to confined space failures, including no atmospheric testing, inadequate ventilation and communication, missing entry and rescue procedures, and lack of training. Pacesetters received two serious violations for failing to enforce permit-required entry procedures and failing to train its temporary workers on confined space hazards. Proposed penalties total $276,399 for D L Bandy Constructors and $23,170 for Pacesetters Personnel Services.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Any contractor modifying equipment to fit tight spaces, such as removing rollover protection or welding on custom parts, should treat that change as a red flag for an OSHA willful violation, not a workaround.
- Staffing companies supplying labor to confined-space jobsites must document permit-required entry procedures and hazard training for every temporary worker before assignment, not after an incident triggers an inspection.
- General contractors bringing on subs or temp labor for crawl space, excavation, or similar confined work should verify atmospheric testing, ventilation, and rescue plans are in place before work starts, since both the prime contractor and staffing firm were cited here.
