San Francisco trench collapse: Manslaughter charges filed after construction worker buried alive
SFDA files charges three years after deadly trench collapse
Construction worker, Javier Romero, died following a trench collapse in 2023, now SFDA Brooke Jenkins is criminally charging the company and several employees saying they should have known better.
SAN FRANCISCO - Involuntary manslaughter charges have been filed in the 2023 death of a San Francisco construction worker who was buried alive when a trench collapsed around him during a tunnel project.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced Monday that charges were filed against John Finbarr Darcy, 62; John William Tobin, 39; and Filiberto Poblano Perez, 52, in connection with the death of 25-year-old Javier Romero. The three men, alongside their employer, D'Arcy & Harty Construction Inc., also face charges of involuntary manslaughter and violating workplace safety standards.
All defendants have pleaded not guilty.
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Lethal trench collapse
The backstory:
On the morning of Sept. 28, 2023, Romero was working inside a 2.5-foot-wide, 5-foot-long, and 8-foot-deep trench near the corner of Oak and Divisadero streets. The project, contracted to D'Arcy & Harty Construction Inc., was part of a tunnel rehabilitation project for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
According to prosecutors, the trench was not properly supported. When a vehicle drove past the site, the trench caved in. Romero was buried under sandy soil and died of mechanical asphyxia.
At the time of the incident, Darcy was the site safety representative, Tobin was the project manager, and Poblano Perez was the crew foreman directly supervising Romero at the site.
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Safety violations
Dig deeper:
Jenkins said her office filed criminal charges following the conclusion of a Cal/OSHA workplace investigation.
"The construction company that employed this 25-year-old was aware of this danger, as they had been cited with a safety complaint for the same issue on another project just three weeks prior," Jenkins said.
At the time of the cave-in, the shorter side of the trench had no support to hold back the soil, while the longer sides only had partial shoring in place, Jenkins said.
A Cal/OSHA inspector determined that D'Arcy & Harty Construction violated excavation safety standards under Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.
The construction company still has not responded to a request for comment.