MARS — Mark Mashuda Excavating has been fined $147,000 over an accident that occurred this year.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the excavating company for federal safety violations after an employee was trapped in a collapsed trench March 31.

Two citations were listed as “willful,” which the agency’s website defined as an employer “either knowingly failing to comply with a legal requirement (purposeful disregard) or acting with plain indifference to employee safety.” Another citation was listed as “serious.”

“This trench collapse should have never happened,” said Christopher Robinson, director of OSHA’s Pittsburgh Area Office in a press release. “It is completely inexcusable for an excavation contractor not to provide cave in protection for all employees working in trenches,” he said.

“OSHA will not tolerate employers not meeting their legal responsibility.”

Company officials did not return calls seeking comment.

The investigation started after an employee was trapped 10-feet deep in a trench collapse. Mark Mashuda was installing sanitary sewer lines off Marburger Road for the Peachmont Farms Development in Evans City.

The man, whose identity has not been released was buried up to his waist, and it took nearly three hours for him to be rescued. He was taken to a Pittsburgh hospital in stable condition.

OSHA said in its findings that the 13-foot-deep excavation had “inadequate or no protective system in place.”