[hinkley]

With trenches, since the person has their head above ground, they think even less of safety. The problem comes after a rain or a very dry period where the sides of the trench collapse. If you are unlucky, the dirt buckles your knees, pulling you down and possibly covering your head.

There’s a reason construction teams bring in reinforced barricades for anything much over 3 feet. Yes it saves on rework, but it’s also about safety.

When I was a kid my dad stopped me from digging a cave in a 5ft tall pile of snow that got stacked up by a plow. I was so mad about that for a long time, but he was probably right. Digging it would likely have been fine, but once it started to melt it could collapse at any point (probably during the heat of the day, when I or another child might have been around).