Anatomy of a $4.7 million OSHA citation

On the morning of November 18, 2025, workers from Revoli Construction Co., Inc. were removing sandy soil and installing steel plates outside a trench on a sewer installation project in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The backfilled sand collapsed. Two workers were trapped inside the trench. One, 61-year-old Miguel Alexandre Reis of Fall River, was engulfed and killed. Another was buried to his waist and airlifted to a hospital. Emergency responders worked for hours at the site; Reis’ body was recovered at 2:45 p.m., nearly six hours after the initial call.

On April 1, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the results of its investigation. OSHA cited Revoli with 57 violations: seven willful, 33 repeat, and 17 serious. The proposed penalties totaled $4,699,362.

The citations covered failing to provide workers with a safe way to exit the trench, lack of adequate cave-in protection, unsupported underground utilities, spoil piles maintained within two feet of the excavation, failure to install a shoring system per design, use of a damaged protective system, and exposing employees to electrical and fall hazards.

Revoli, a Franklin, Massachusetts-based water and sewer line contractor, was working on the town of Yarmouth’s $17 million sewer project at the time of the collapse. The two parties were already in litigation: Revoli had sued the town in September 2025 in Norfolk Superior Court for breach of contract over rejected change orders. The town counter- claimed, accusing Revoli of causing flooding and damaging utilities.

A pattern documented across three decades

The Yarmouth fatality was not Revoli’s first trench safety case. It was not its second. OSHA records and federal administrative rulings document a pattern of excavation violations stretching back 30 years.

1995.OSHA’s first citation on record for Revoli for a violation of the trenching standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(a)(1).

1996. A repeat violation of the same standard, affirmed under a settlement agreement with a $3,500 penalty.

1998.A trench collapse at a Revoli worksite injured a worker. OSHA cited the company for a willful violation of the same trenching standard. Under a settlement, the willful classification was affirmed and a $40,000 penalty assessed. As part of the agreement, Revoli acknowledged “the inherent dangers of trench/excavation operations” and agreed to notify the Methuen OSHA office of any excavation exceeding five feet in depth for a period of two years.

1999 (August). Three months before the next incident, Revoli was cited again for a repeat violation of the same standard: an improperly shored excavation seven feet, six inches deep. An administrative law judge affirmed the violation and assessed a $15,000 penalty.

1999 (November).An OSHA compliance officer driving past a Revoli site in Wilmington, Massachusetts noticed trenching work in progress. He observed an employee working in an unshored, unsloped trench measuring 7.5 feet deep with Type C soil, cracking in the walls, and spoil piled at the edge. The employee was the nephew of the company’s owner and president, Shawqi Alsarabi. The nephew had been reprimanded previously for working in an unprotected trench. OSHA cited Revoli with a willful violation. The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission affirmed the willful classification and assessed a $63,000 penalty. In its ruling, the Commission wrote that “Revoli’s failure to have taken action previously when the prior citations left no doubt about what should be done, establishes its plain indifference to employee safety.”

2005. Revoli faced proposed fines of $115,900 for inadequate cave-in protection on a waterline installation project in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Two workers were found in a 14-foot-deep trench without cave-in protection or a ladder.

2023. OSHA cited Revoli after finding that two employees were allowed to work inside an unprotected trench ranging from 5.5 to 7.5 feet deep in Littleton, Massachusetts. Fine: $5,625.

2024. On the same Yarmouth sewer project where the fatal collapse would later occur, OSHA cited Revoli for electrical safety violations after workers were exposed to arc flash and electrocution hazards from extension cords with indoor-rated connectors left on wet ground. Fine: $6,950.

2025. The November 18 trench collapse in Yarmouth. One worker killed, another seriously injured. Fifty-seven citations. $4.7 million in proposed penalties.

By the numbers

The Revoli citations appear in FastDOL’s OSHA Citations Q1 2026 dataset, which covers every citation issued between January 1 and March 31, 2026. Revoli’s case provides a useful lens on how a single enforcement action can dominate a quarter’s data.

For context: Revoli’s $4.7 million in proposed penalties accounts for 6.3% of all OSHA citation penalties issued in Q1 2026 ($74.7 million across 28,827 citations). The company’s seven willful citations represent 5.8% of all willful citations issued during the quarter. By total penalty amount, Revoli is the single largest OSHA enforcement action in the Q1 2026 dataset, more than seven times the next-highest employer.

Every willful and repeat citation in the case received the maximum gravity score of 10.

Editorial note

Revoli’s citations were issued on March 31, 2026, during a period of broad decline in OSHA enforcement activity. As documented in The FastDOL Monthly, Issue 1, willful and repeat citations have averaged 372 per month since October 2025, down 31% from the prior baseline.

That decline raises an uncomfortable question about cases like this one. Revoli’s trench safety record spans three decades, at least nine documented enforcement actions, and a federal ruling that used the phrase “plain indifference to employee safety.” The company continued to win public contracts and operate excavation sites through all of it. The penalties assessed along the way — $3,500 in 1996, $40,000 in 1998, $63,000 in 1999, $5,625 in 2023 — did not change the pattern. Whether $4.7 million will is an open question. What is not an open question is the outcome the pattern produced: a worker is dead, and nothing in Revoli’s enforcement history suggests it was unforeseeable.

What happens next

Revoli has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. As of publication, the case status is open.

The company’s history suggests it may contest. Its 1999 case went to a full Commission ruling. Whether the 2026 penalties survive contestation, settlement negotiation, or are paid in full remains to be seen.

Data source.The citation-level records referenced in this post are drawn from FastDOL’s OSHA Citations Q1 2026 dataset (28,827 rows, CC BY 4.0). The dataset is also available on Hugging Face and Zenodo.

References

1. U.S. Department of Labor, “US Department of Labor cites construction contractor with 7 willful, 33 repeat violations after fatal Yarmouth cave-in,” OSHA News Release 26-574-NAT, April 1, 2026. dol.gov
2. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, Secretary of Labor v. Revoli Construction Co., Inc., OSHRC Docket No. 00-0315. oshrc.gov
3. Don McLoud, “1 Dead, 2 Injured in Trench Collapse; Contractor Has Long History of Violations,” Equipment World, November 25, 2025. equipmentworld.com
4. Thea DiGiammerino and NBC10 Boston Staff, “Contractor cited for safety violations after fatal Cape Cod trench collapse,” NBC Boston, April 1, 2026. nbcboston.com
5. Ben Turner, “The FastDOL Monthly, Issue 1,” FastDOL, May 2026. fastdol.com