Workers on a Milford, Ohio storm drain job warned company owner David Baumgardner that the trench they were standing in was too deep and dangerous, but the crew kept working anyway — and minutes later the walls caved in, killing 28-year-old Jose Alberto Barajas Martinez and injuring two coworkers, including the victim's own father.
A Warning Ignored, Then Tragedy
The collapse happened around 3:30 p.m. on December 5, 2025, on Valley Forge Drive near Milford, where a three-man crew from Whispering Creek LLC was installing corrugated pipe for a residential storm drain replacement inside an unshored, eight-foot-deep trench, according to Cleveland.com. Federal rules require cave-in protections such as sloping, shoring, or shielding on any excavation deeper than five feet, a threshold this trench exceeded by three feet. Baumgardner was on site at the time of the collapse, and workers had told him beforehand that the trench was deep and dangerous, but the crew continued working inside it regardless, per the same report.
Miami Township Fire and EMS crews arrived to find Barajas Martinez completely buried and unconscious, while two coworkers were trapped up to their abdomens in collapsed soil, according to WFMD. Extreme soil instability forced rescuers to supply oxygen and heated blankets to the trapped survivors while they waited for specialized extraction equipment, and a report from the scene noted a non-trapped worker had initially tried to dig his colleagues out by hand with a shovel. Jaime Barajas, the father of Barajas Martinez, was among the two workers injured in the collapse.
Catastrophic Injuries for the Survivors
The two men who survived suffered severe internal trauma, including arterial and lung damage, and both developed life-threatening rhabdomyolysis, a condition caused by crushed muscle tissue releasing toxins into the bloodstream. Emergency records reviewed by Fox News show one survivor sustained eight fractures, while the other suffered two fractured ribs. The physics behind that kind of damage are stark: OSHA technical guidance notes a single cubic yard of dry soil can weigh roughly 3,000 pounds, about the weight of a compact car, meaning a trench wall collapse can deliver fatal crushing force in an instant, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.
When federal inspectors reached the scene, extension ladders were positioned inside the trench. But bodycam footage and interviews with first responders established that those ladders were placed during the rescue operation itself, and that no safe means of exit existed at the moment the wall gave way, per The Mirror. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P requires ladders or ramps within 25 lateral feet of workers in any trench four feet or deeper.
Owner Admitted Knowing the Rules
Baumgardner admitted to federal investigators that he was familiar with trench safety standards and had used trench boxes on previous jobs, but told them he didn't deploy cave-in protection this time because he believed the workers weren't deep enough, according to the same WFMD account. OSHA ultimately found the trench lacked the mandated cave-in protections and initially cited the company for what investigators described as conscious disregard and plain indifference to federal safety laws, per the Cincinnati Enquirer's reporting cited by Cleveland.com. The agency originally ordered Whispering Creek LLC to pay $231,714 in penalties.
That penalty was later reduced through settlement to $49,000, with the violation downgraded from willful to serious, and the company must pay the fine by 2029. As part of the settlement, Whispering Creek LLC must also fix the underlying OSHA violations and hire a third-party consultant to train employees on trench safety, according to Cleveland.com.
Criminal Charges Still Under Review
Beyond the federal fines, Baumgardner faces separate legal exposure. An initial police report listed potential criminal charges of reckless homicide and negligent assault, and Baumgardner told reporters in August that he expected felony charges to be filed against him, according to a report carried by KFBK. Clermont County prosecutors are now determining whether to file those charges in Common Pleas Court.
Such prosecutions remain rare nationally. Criminal convictions for workplace trench fatalities are historically uncommon in the United States because federal OSHA's criminal provisions carry weak penalties, leaving felony charges up to local prosecutors who face a high legal bar to prove reckless intent, according to Confined Space. Even so, more local prosecutors nationwide have begun partnering with OSHA to pursue manslaughter or reckless homicide charges in especially egregious cases.
A Broader Pattern of Preventable Deaths
The Milford case fits into a documented national decline in trench fatalities, which fell to 13 in 2024 and 11 in 2025, down sharply from a peak of 39 deaths in 2022 that triggered enhanced nationwide enforcement, per OSHA data. Federal rules under 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P require sloping, shoring, or shielding on excavations five feet or deeper, ladders within 25 lateral feet of workers, and excavated soil kept at least two feet back from trench edges to prevent secondary collapses — standards Hoodline has detailed in past coverage of similar close calls. Whispering Creek LLC's trench, at eight feet deep and unshored, violated the core requirement of that federal standard.
