 At the heart of many of these cases is a trench box, a system where metal plates press against the soil walls of a trench to stabilize them, and crossbeams, known as spreaders, hold the plates apart. There wasn't one in place when Jack Martin died in 2019. He was buried alive while installing a sewer line behind a shopping center in Houston. His father, Larry Martin, says money was the problem. Two days prior before it happened,