Teen Loses Each Legs After Getting Dragged Beneath Trencher Blade: ‘Ought to By no means Have Occurred’

A building firm has been fined $156,259 following the incident, in response to the Washington State Division of Labor & Industries

A 16-year-old boy in Washington misplaced each of his legs after a horrific incident this summer season, officers introduced Wednesday.

The teenager was despatched by Rotschy LLC to function a “walk-behind trencher on a job web site in La Heart to dig a channel for fence posts,” the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries mentioned in an announcement.

That is when officers mentioned he was “dragged beneath the blade,” resulting in accidents “so extreme” they required each legs to be amputated.

The boy, who has not been publicly recognized, “was collaborating in a work-based studying program that enables college students to earn credit score and achieve expertise working outdoors the classroom” on the time of the incident, in response to the company.

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The development firm had “a pupil learner exemption allowing minors to do some work that’s in any other case prohibited, however use of the walk-behind trencher was not a part of the exemption,” officers mentioned, noting that the state’s youth employment legal guidelines establish prohibited duties for employees underneath the age of 18.

“This tragedy ought to by no means have occurred, and this younger man’s life won’t ever be the identical,” mentioned Craig Blackwood, assistant director for the division’s Division of Occupational Security and Well being. “Employers with younger employees ought to take care of our kids as they might their very own. After they fail to maintain a younger employee secure, it’s a violation of the neighborhood’s belief.”

The division has ordered the corporate to cease work and halted its student-learner exemption. They’re additionally going through the utmost high quality out there at $156,259 “for permitting workers to function gear with out applicable coaching or expertise.”

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“The violation is taken into account ‘willful’ as a result of the corporate knew or ought to have identified the necessities, however nonetheless failed to fulfill them,” the company added. “It’s additionally categorized as ‘severe’ as a result of the problems may, and on this case did, result in severe damage or dying.”

Rotschy LLC and the Washington State Division of Labor & Industries didn’t instantly reply to PEOPLE’s requests for remark.

In an announcement to Inside Edition, the corporate mentioned they have been “deeply saddened by the incident involving one in every of our minor employees who suffered a tragic damage on our job web site.”

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“As a family-owned firm with a powerful security report, this has been a distressing second for us,” their assertion added. “Security has all the time been our high precedence. We’re dedicated to studying from this and strengthening our security measures to make sure such incidents by no means occur once more.”

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Rotschy LLC went on so as to add that the boy has returned to work in an workplace function, “utilizing the talents obtained within the area to help a undertaking supervisor in undertaking duties.”

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