(serious music) - Welcome to Crosscut Now, the show that takes you beyond the breaking news, goes deeper on the issues you care about, and brings awareness to stories affecting communities.

In today's episode, 2022 was one of the deadliest years for trench collapses in the country.

Nearly 40 workers died, more than double the previous year.

We'll explain why last year was grim for workplace deaths in Washington.

We'll also look at a new University of Washington study that highlights the three most common reasons election ballots are rejected, and we'll tell you what group of voters seem to deal with that rejection the most.

Plus, if arts and culture are your thing, we have a rundown of some of the cool new places and exhibits to explore.

(serious music) I'm Paris Jackson, and today's top story: workplace safety advocates say stronger penalties often lead to stronger safety standards.

You'll learn more about the tragic deaths surrounding a Seattle worker that sparked efforts to hold state employers more accountable than monetary fines.

Last year, Washington State saw the highest number of workplace deaths since 2010.

According to the Washington Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation program.

Recently, a huge precedent was set when a construction company owner was sentenced to jail time.

Advocates say this could pave an easier route to bringing future criminal charges for workers' deaths.

In 2016, Harold Felton died when a trench that wasn't properly secure gave way, burying him alive.

L&I slapped the owner of Alki Construction, Phil Numrich with several citations, and initially a $50,000 fine that was later reduced by about 96%.

But unlike other companies, Numrich eventually also faced felony charges and was sentenced to 45 days in jail after pleading guilty to a lesser offense.

Numrich remains in business to the disappointment of Felton's family, even after violating many of the same safety rules a few years later.

(serious music) I sat down with investigative reporter Lizz Giordano, to dive into the details behind workplace deaths.

Welcome, Lizz, thank you for joining us today.

- Thanks for having me.

- Now, in 2022, there was an uptick in trench collapse deaths.

Tell us a little bit more about that.

- Yeah, 2022 was an especially deadly year nationally for workers in trenches, mostly due to trenches being unprotected, meaning there's no shoring to prevent the movement of soil.

This increase is likely because more workers are finding themselves in trenches as infrastructure ages, and as more money comes down to replace that aging infrastructure.

And trenches are dug for a lot of different reasons, for sewer lines, for electrical lines.

There's a lot of reasons their workers are in them.

- Tell us about Harold Felton, who died in 2016 while working in a trench.

- Yeah, Harold was a new dad.

His daughter was just four months old when he died.

His sister described him as someone who never said no to helping someone out.

He was an avid reader, and about six months before his death, he went to work for his friend's sewer repair business.

- Tell us about his friend that he worked for.

- Yeah, he went to work for Phil Numrich, who was an owner of Alki Construction, at the time.

It was a small sewer repair business, and they were on the job in West Seattle for placing a sewer line into a house.

- Speaking of Phil Numrich, L&I fined him for the death of Harold Felton, about $50,000, and it was later reduced about $25,000.

And what we learned through your reporting is years later there were other violations, and they were reduced by some 96%.

Tell us how L&I came to reducing those fines so drastically.

- Yeah, L&I reduced his fines for several different reasons, they told me.

If they come across new information, or if a company has a clean safety record and agrees not to appeal further.

In the case of the second set of fines that was reduced so drastically, L&I said that was because of the type of violation was changed to something less serious.

- Now, Numrich did eventually face manslaughter charges, and it set a precedent in Washington.

Tell us a little bit more about that.

- Yeah, Numrich faced manslaughter charges.

Eventually it was reduced to lesser charges that he pled to.

The case got complicated, but it did pave the way for precedent in the state because this case at one point went to the Supreme Court, to decide if in a workplace death manslaughter charges could be brought, and the Supreme Court did decide that that could be the case.

So it set the tone for future workplace fatalities.

- Now, since then, there has still been tragic deaths of workers in trenches around the state, and most recently as last year, three people died.

Tell us about their stories.

- [Lizz] Yeah, that was an unusually high number for Washington last year.

In one case, a contractor and his employee suffocated at the bottom of a 24 foot trench.

The trench had actually collapsed the day before, and then a second case a worker died in Renton at the bottom of a trench.

In that case, the L&I issued eight citations and $145,000 in fines.

The agency said it was too early to comment if they were seeking criminal charges in those cases.

- One thing that was glaring from your reporting is L&I as well as OSHA officials continue to say how preventable these trench collapses are.

Why are companies continuing to skirt, essentially, these safety requirements?

- Yeah, that's a good question, some advocates say they, maybe they just don't know, or they're just trying to complete a job quicker.

But these standards have been around for a while.

They're really well known.

- And one thing that you've found in talking with Felton's family is they feel let down by L&I.

What are you hearing from the family?

- [Lizz] Yeah, the family feels really failed by L&I through the whole process.

They felt that Harold was not given a safe work site, and then the fines were reduced and didn't deter Phil Numrich from reviolating many of the same safety standards.

Then they didn't pursue criminal charges when they could.

- Where do we go from here?

- L&I talked to me about wanting to pursue criminal charges in the future.

They think it's one way to reduce worker deaths to kind of hold employers criminally accountable and not just issue fines.

It'll be interesting to watch if L&I does pursue criminal charges in future workplace deaths.

It's something that they and safety advocates say could help contribute to lowering the number of deaths at workplaces.

- It was a pleasure speaking with you today, Lizz.

- Thanks for having me, Paris.

- Excellent reporting, and we're gonna continue to follow your team's coverage of L&I.

If you want to see Lizz's full investigative piece, just go to crosscut.com.

(serious music) A new University of Washington study finds a segment of voters has failed to get their votes counted over the last 10 years.

We'll explain.

New research from the University of Washington finds minority voters in Washington are more likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected.

UW's Evans School of Public Policy and Governance Study found young voters were by far the biggest group who failed to have their votes counted during elections over the past decade.

In 2022, nearly 5% of voters ages 18 to 25 had their ballots rejected in the general election, compared to just 0.8% of voters between ages 46 and 65 years old.

There is good news, most rejected ballots are cured in time to have their votes counted according to the report released days before this year's general election.

UW's co-lead researcher says, the study points out that almost every ballot does get counted.

The three most common reasons for ballots being rejected are lack of signature on the ballot envelope, signatures don't match, or they're just returned late.

(serious music) Several new art spaces are opening around the Puget Sound.

We'll let you know where you can enjoy the latest on the arts and culture scene.

New entertainment venues and exhibits are popping up around the Puget Sound, after a much anticipated wait, The Beloved Cinerama, now under a new name, Siff Cinema Downtown opens to the public next month on December 14th.

60 years after its first screening, the theater will reopen with the Chocolate forward film, Wonka.

(serious music) There's a handful of new art spaces opening this season, bringing vibrancy back to the area, following the pandemic closures.

The Roadhouse, a new all ages performance venue at the Angle Lake Light Rail Station has more to come this month with the grand opening of a new hive of creative spaces for young artists to explore.

Happening now through early January, Art Noir is hosting a show of contemporary quilts by the Pacific Northwest African American quilters called The Ties That Bind Us, Woven Stories of Celebration located in the Central District.

I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching Cross Cut Now, your destination for nonprofit northwest news.

Go to crosscut.com for more.

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