Boyd to pay fine

The job sounded simple enough: Climb into the manhole, cut open a pipe and fix the clog causing the sewage backup.

Yet the plan made David Snow uneasy. They should call the company they typically used for this kind of work, he told a supervisor.

Mark Seglin, another worker at The Orleans that February afternoon, told another supervisor the plan "was not a good idea."

Despite the protestations and the noxious fumes spilling into the air above the manhole, Richard Luzier climbed into the sewer pit and started cutting. He didn't come out alive.

Neither did Travis Koehler, who jumped into the pit to save Luzier. Snow also went down in a would-be rescue attempt. He survived -- barely.

"I was dead at The Orleans," he said. "I came back from the dead."

The deaths of Koehler, a 26-year-old with wedding plans on the horizon, and Luzier, a 48-year-old married father of two, triggered a six-month investigation by the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The results of that investigation, released Tuesday, found a litany of workplace safety violations that led to the deaths, a history of workplace safety violations at Boyd Gaming Corp. properties and missed opportunities to change the lack of a "safety culture" within the company.

"Corporate understood what types of hazards were associated with those properties yet chose not to take action to ensure the health and safety of workers," an OSHA report on the incident said.

Under an unprecedented agreement with OSHA, Boyd Gaming will pay $185,000 in fines and revamp safety programs at its nine Nevada properties under OSHA supervision.

"Regardless of what happened or why, we have absolutely no interest in engaging in an argument over this report," Boyd Gaming spokesman Rob Stillwell said. "It was a horrific tragedy, period. And we see OSHA as our partner in our effort to prevent another tragedy like this from happening again."

For Koehler's mother, Debi Koehler-Fergen, the fine and the promise of new safety procedures were not enough to hold the company accountable.

"I think they need to step up to the plate and own up to the fact that they were in the wrong here," she said. "They need to admit that they did not have their safety practices in place, their training in place, and it caused this terrible accident that took my son's life."

On the day he died Koehler had been summoned to a series of manholes at The Orleans loading dock, where sewage was flowing into the grease trap system because of a clogged underground pipe. Six other workers, including three supervisors, joined Koehler.

They discussed the problem and, depending on who is giving the account, Luzier was either ordered or volunteered to enter the manhole and fix the problem, the OSHA report said.

Luzier had been working at The Orleans for less than a month, but he brought a lifetime of experience. He had been a plumber since his teen years and once ran a successful plumbing business outside Washington, D.C., with clients including the Watergate Hotel, his family said.

He had moved to Las Vegas with his wife and two children in 2000 to take advantage of the housing market. He bounced around various plumbing jobs before landing his "dream job" at The Orleans, said his wife, Leslie.

"He thought it was a great opportunity," she said. "It was exactly what he had wanted. He thought, 'I could go in here and really make a name for myself.' "

Before Luzier entered the manhole, two other workers, assistant supervisor Jimmy Tran and Mark Seglin, left to retrieve a saw. During the drive, Seglin told Tran his reservations about the plan, according to the OSHA report.

Snow also questioned the move, twice telling supervisor Steve Cooper that someone should call an outside company that regularly performed this kind of underground work for The Orleans, the report said.

The three supervisors told investigators the decision to send Luzier into the sewer pit was never questioned.

Luzier climbed down the ladder and cut the plastic pipe, unleashing a gush of sewage. Cooper told him to stop, but before Luzier could get out of the manhole, his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the bottom of the pit, the report said.

Two supervisors, Cooper and Tom Griffin, told investigators that Koehler and Snow jumped in to save Luzier.

Seglin and Snow told a different story. Seglin said Cooper and Griffin ordered the would-be rescuers down the manhole, and Snow said he and Koehler were "ordered into the pit by a screaming chief engineer," the report said.

Koehler, who planned to marry his fiancee next year, went in first.

"It was typical of Travis to try to help," Koehler-Fergen said. "When they were screaming for help, he was the first one to run in to help."

Despite the toxic gases in the pit, Koehler remained conscious long enough to reach Luzier, pull him out of the wastewater and wipe his face.

"He's OK," Koehler shouted up. Get some rope, he said.

Within seconds Koehler was unconscious, lying on top of his fallen co-worker. Snow descended the ladder next and was overcome by the toxic sewer gases. He collapsed and fell on top of his co-workers.

With three men down and the commotion growing, Cooper ordered no one else into the pit and called for help. A Clark County Fire Department rescue team was dispatched. The team is usually stationed a half-mile from The Orleans, but it was training at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and didn't arrive for about 20 minutes.

Firefighters donned oxygen masks as they cleared the area around the manhole. One observed Snow's body convulse in seizures while the sewage from the cut pipe continued to spill on the men, according to a fire report.

When a firefighter was lowered into the pit about 45 minutes into the ordeal, only Snow showed any sign of life. The firefighter wrapped a rope around Snow's legs, and he was pulled up to safety.

Snow spent the next three weeks in a coma at University Medical Center. Doctors had to resuscitate him twice, and he was given just a 10 percent chance of living, he said.

He recovered, despite the odds, and went home March 11 to his two young daughters and wife. But he said he wasn't prepared for the psychological damage. Within four days of returning home, he had a panic attack that gripped his chest and doubled him over, he said. He takes anti-depressants and sleep aids to cope.

Doctors removed his gall bladder. He had damage to his liver and kidneys, and because of the exposure to hydrogen sulfide now has blood poisoning that makes him more susceptible to leukemia, he said.

He said he has minor cognitive and memory problems.

He has returned to work for Boyd Gaming, which transferred him to Sam's Town.

Hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs, is a byproduct of decomposition and is frequently found in sewers. It prevents lungs from absorbing oxygen. It causes unconsciousness at lower concentrations and death at high concentrations.

Koehler and Luzier probably both passed out from inhaling hydrogen sulfide, but it's not what killed them.

Koehler suffocated on his own vomit, and Luzier drowned in the wastewater at the bottom of the pit, according to the Clark County coroner's office.

Their deaths could have been prevented with simple training, said John Rekus, an occupational safety consultant who wrote the "Complete Confined Spaces Handbook."

"In this day and age it's unconscionable that people are sending people into confined spaces without taking precautions, especially a rich casino," he said. "It boggles my mind."

Confined spaces are areas with limited access, such as sewers, storage tanks and silos. OSHA regulations require training for employees on the dangers of confined spaces. They also require strict procedures for entering confined spaces, such as continuous air monitoring for dangerous gases, safety harnesses for quick rescues and oxygen masks.

None of the regulations was followed in The Orleans incident, which led to the nine OSHA violations against Boyd Gaming. The violations centered on lack of training programs, safety procedures and equipment for confined spaces.

OSHA also cited Boyd Gaming for failing to conduct annual safety audits.

The report repeatedly noted a lack of a "safety culture" at The Orleans and other Boyd Gaming hotels.

It cited a 2001 incident at The Orleans in which an employee working in a sewer pit was sickened by the fumes. He was sent home but still felt ill several days later. He checked into a hospital for four days.

Supervisors told OHSA inspectors they thought the worker had food poisoning.

In July 2006, OSHA inspected the California, a Boyd Gaming hotel in downtown Las Vegas. The inspectors cited the hotel for failing to mark confined spaces, such as grease traps, and to train employees to stay out of them, the report said.

Don Barker, the environmental health and safety manager for Boyd Gaming, told OSHA investigators he recognized the lack of a corporate confined space safety program in mid-2005. The next year he planned a series of internal inspections and audits at all Boyd Gaming properties, but Barker said "interference" from upper management in Boyd Gaming and The Orleans quashed the plan, the report said.

"These inspections were not completed," the report said. Barker "stated that they were cancelled by upper level management that did not want safety issues address at the time."

Boyd Gaming agreed to pay the fine announced on Tuesday and overhaul its safety program.

"We cannot bring our colleagues back, but we can honor their memories by redoubling our commitment to our employees' safety," Boyd Gaming said in a written statement.

Steve Coffield, OSHA's acting chief administrator, said the agreement with Boyd Gaming is unprecedented. He said he hopes the company's revamped safety program will serve as a template for the entire hotel-casino industry.

"They're not happy about what happened," Coffield said of Boyd Gaming. "They're very concerned.

"They feel bad for the families, and they're committed to doing better."

Coffield said OSHA would not make any further recommendations on possible actions against Boyd Gaming. Any potential criminal charges would be up to local prosecutors, he said. But District Attorney David Roger and Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen said they would not consider the matter unless it was referred to them by an outside agency.

Leslie Luzier declined to comment on OSHA's findings, but Snow and Koehler-Fergen said OSHA didn't go far enough in punishing Boyd Gaming.

OSHA inspectors initially proposed citing the company with some willful and repeat violations, which carry larger fines. OSHA reduced those to serious violations because of factual and legal issues that would have made it easier for Boyd Gaming to challenge them in court, Coffield said.

Both Snow and Koehler-Fergen said OSHA should have issued willful violations. Koehler-Fergen said she was considering filing a complaint against OSHA because of the decision.

"I don't understand why they negotiated it down," she said. "To minimize that does not do justice for my son."

Snow also felt the fine was meaningless, even if it was one of the largest in state history.

"You can't put a price on life," he said. "It could be a fine of $100,000 or $200 million, but you can't take back what happened to those guys."