Former Vail construction company owner pleads guilty to manslaughter in trench collapse that killed 20

News News | Aug 4, 2023

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The former owner of a Vail construction company pleaded guilty in a Summit County court Thursday, Aug. 3, to felony manslaughter related to a trench collapse near Breckenridge that killed a worker in 2021.

By pleading guilty to manslaughter, a Class 4 felony, Peter Dillon, the owner of the now-defunct A4S Construction, admitted he “recklessly caused the death of another person,” Judge Karen Romeo said.

The terms of a plea agreement with the 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office stipulate that Dillon could receive a probationary sentence with up to 90 days in jail, Romeo said. The manslaughter charge is punishable by up to two to six years in prison, probation with up to 90 days in jail, a community corrections sentence or up to a $500,000 fine, she noted.

Romeo said she will reserve sentencing decisions until a sentencing hearing. That hearing is scheduled for Nov. 9, when she has had time to review the case and learn more about Dillon and his background.

“If I don’t think the sentence asked for is appropriate then I would allow you to withdraw your plea,” Romeo said.

Dillon turned himself in to local law enforcement after a warrant was issued for his arrest on Jan. 24. His arrest followed a determination by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration that a Nov. 16, 2021, trench collapse near Breckenridge could have been prevented by using legally required trench-protection systems.

That trench collapse killed 20-year-old Marlon Diaz who had been doing excavation work for A4S Construction. Diaz’s father, who lives in Choluteca, Honduras, has said Diaz had come to the United States about 11 months earlier to make a better life not only for himself, but for his family in Central America.

In court documents, prosecutors laid out “a pattern of unsafe behavior” at the worksite leading up to the fatal collapse.

Before Diaz’s death, the project manager at the site reported safety concerns to Dillon and employees complained to Dillon that they did not feel safe after rocks and dirt kept falling on them, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant filed in the case.

Two weeks before the fatal collapse, another trench at the same worksite partially collapsed, the affidavit states, and about two hours before the walls caved in, Dillon entered the trench himself but failed to note that it was improperly dug and lacked the required safety equipment.

Even after the workplace death, employees continued working in the trenches without proper safety equipment for at least another month, according to the court document.

Investigators say A4S Construction began work at the site on Nov. 16, 2020, one year before the fatal incident. Weekly reports provided by A4S indicate employees first entered trenches on Aug. 31, 2021, and worked for at least four months in unprotected trenches, according to the affidavit.

Court documents claim that the project manager and lead excavator Dillon hired had never received formal training on trenching and excavation regulations, had little to no familiarity with trench protective systems and were sometimes unable to explain fundamental trenching concepts such as soil typing.

The project manager did hold daily safety meetings, according to the affidavit, but the company kept no records of topics discussed. The project manager reportedly told investigators he didn’t think the crew understood the hazards of trenching and “didn’t seem to take it seriously.”

A4S Construction did not have a written safety and health program, never conducted audits or inspections on worksites, did not offer formal, written training, or maintain any records documenting which employees had received training, according to the affidavit. Dillon reportedly told investigators that most employees “acted like they had been trained before.”

Investigators say the lead excavator disputed Dillon’s claim that workers had received prior training at other jobs and told investigators that “pretty much everyone that went in the trench complained” but the crew felt like they had no choice to work in unsafe conditions “because they had to feed their families.”

Dillon did not provide a trench box — a piece of safety equipment often required for trench work — until early September 2021, the lead excavator reportedly told investigators. Even then, the lead excavator said the box — which was too small for most of the trench work being done and too heavy to move with most of the equipment on site — was used only for about a week, mostly after employees complained they did not feel safe because of falling dirt and rocks, according to the affidavit.

At the time of his Diaz’s death, the trench box was located outside another trench a few hundred feet away and had never been used in the trench that collapsed, the affidavit states. In a news release announcing the manslaughter charge against Dillon, the Department of Labor described Diaz’s death as “preventable.”

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