CSP question for October 19, 2026

The CSP question of the day for Monday, October 19, 2026, on excavation and working over water. Pick an answer to see the explanation and its source.

CSP Domain 1: Advanced Application of Safety Principles

After a thunderstorm overnight, a crew returns to a 7-foot-deep utility trench. Before anyone enters, the competent person walks the trench and finds fresh cracking along the top of one wall and water seeping from the face. The foreman says the trench was inspected yesterday morning and the crew is behind schedule, so two laborers should begin setting pipe while the competent person goes to inspect another site. What does the standard require in this situation?

Show answer and source

Answer: D. Employees must be kept out of the hazardous area until the necessary precautions have been taken to ensure their safety

OSHA's excavation rule, 29 CFR 1926.651(k)(2), requires that when the competent person finds evidence of a possible cave-in, all exposed employees stay out of the hazardous area until precautions make it safe. Yesterday's inspection does not count, because 1926.651(k)(1) also requires an inspection after every rainstorm. Working quickly, rechecking at shift end, or removing only nearby workers does not meet the rule.

On the job

A foreman on a roadway culvert job notices, during the morning inspection of a 5-foot-deep excavation, that a section of the wall is bulging and soil is sliding into the bottom. The competent person has the whole crew leave the hazardous area and keeps them out. Work waits until the necessary precautions have been taken to ensure their safety, not just until another inspection is scheduled.

Study aid, not site-specific safety advice. The official rule controls.

Answer D comes from

29 CFR 1926.651(k)(2)

“Where the competent person finds evidence of a situation that could result in a possible cave-in, indications of failure of protective systems, hazardous atmospheres, or other hazardous conditions, exposed employees shall be removed from the hazardous area until the necessary precautions have been taken to ensure their safety.”