‘Entirely preventable’: Mass. contractor to blame for death of worker crushed in collapse, feds say

HANSON, Mass. — The operator of three Massachusetts-based contracting companies is to blame for the death of a worker who was crushed in a foundation collapse at a home on the South Shore earlier this year, federal investigators announced Friday.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that Woburn employer Aleckssandro Tomaz Pereira could have prevented an employee from suffering fatal injuries in February 2024 when part of a foundation broke and fell on the worker in a 5-to-6-foot-deep trench beneath the foundation of a Hanson home, according to United States Department of Labor.

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Pereira, who operates waterproofing contracting companies Boston Concrete Corp LLC, VMT Contractor LLC, and Boston Concrete and Remodeling LLC, exposed employees to cave-in, caught-between and structural collapse hazards by failing to protect the trench and the building foundation against collapse, OSHA investigators said.

Pereira instructed the worker to enter the unprotected trench to prepare a foundation wall for waterproofing and dig out an area under that wall to install concrete footings, according to OSHA.

“Aleckssandro Tomaz Pereira should never have placed workers in this trench until the excavation and the building’s foundation were guarded against collapse, workers were properly trained, water was removed from the trench and an exit ladder was provided,” Braintree-based OSHA director James Mulligan said in a statement. “This tragedy was entirely preventable.”

OSHA said it also determined that Pereira failed to do the following:

• Ensure the employee in the trench did not dig beneath the unsupported foundation walls’ base
• Train employees to recognize and avoid cave-in and structural collapse hazards
• Train employees on operating the excavator and recognizing associated hazards
• Provide a safe means of exiting the trench
• Prevent water from accumulating in the trench

OSHA has cited Pereira for two willful and six serious violations, while also proposing $283,115 in penalties.

After the incident, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz identified the worker who died in the collapse on Dwight Street as 51-year-old Gerceir Osvaldo Faria.

Emergency crews worked for hours to extricate Faria’s body from the rubble of the collapse.

Faria’s brother told Boston 25 at the time that he had recently moved to Massachusetts from Brazil. He left behind two children, ages 17 and 24, and his wife.

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