The U.S. Department of Labor cited Breland Homes Inc., a Huntsville-based home builder, on Thursday with eight serious safety violations after a worker died in a trench collapse in December 2025.
Investigators with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned workers for Breland Homes Inc. were installing a sewage drainpipe in a Madison County subdivision when the trench collapsed on a construction laborer killing the worker.
OSHA concluded that Breland Homes had allowed the worker to work in an unprotected and unsupported section of the trench. The agency found multiple safety violations, including failure to train workers to recognize unsafe conditions in trenching, allowing workers to conduct duties without protective helmets and permitting employees to conduct work with a damaged ladder…