Wyoming OSHA Investigates Injury at Meta's Cheyenne Data Center: Protecting Ground Spotters on Multi-Employer Sites

Wyoming OSHA, the state-run program that covers most private-sector workplaces in Wyoming, investigated an Oct. 7, 2026 incident reported by VFC Lightning, a subcontractor on Meta's data center project in Cheyenne, agency spokesperson Erin Turbitt told Cowboy State Daily. Turbitt, public information officer for the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, gave no other details.

Joel Ferguson, a VFC Lightning coworker who was on site but did not see it happen, shared what he knew with Cowboy State Daily. According to Ferguson, his colleague had been assigned as a ground spotter. Ferguson said he believes a lift bumped the man, knocked him down and drove over him, and then backed up over him again. Ferguson told Cowboy State Daily the man was treated for several broken vertebrae and ribs, an internal puncture and a broken ankle, and had surgery in the following days.

Ferguson said his VFC Lightning supervisor told him the crew was being sent home for the day with pay while work was suspended pending the OSHA investigation, and that work elsewhere on the project kept moving. He said: "Our company subcontracts from another company who are working for another company."

The general contractor is Fortis Construction. Fortis, VFC Lightning, and Meta did not respond to Cowboy State Daily.

What we know and what we don't

As of Oct. 21, 2026, no citation had been reported, and Wyoming OSHA has released no findings. The injury details come from one coworker who was on site but did not witness the event. That is the public record right now, based on Cowboy State Daily (Oct. 15, 2026) and OSHA Today's news digest (Oct. 21, 2026).

We won't guess at what happened or why, and nothing below is a finding about this incident or any company on the project. Investigations take time. Wyoming OSHA adopts federal OSHA standards nearly word for word, so the federal OSHA guidance below is a useful reference for Wyoming jobs. What we can do is look at our own jobs, because a lot of crews have a spotter working near a lift today on a site shared by several companies.

Spotter communication: signals, eye contact, and the stop rule

OSHA's Preventing Backovers page calls spotters a proven method of protecting workers on foot behind vehicles with an obstructed view. The same page points out that spotters themselves can be at risk. They stand close to the equipment by design, and that exposure has to be managed.

OSHA's suggestions for employers are worth running through with every operator and spotter pair:

• Agree on hand signals before backing starts.
• The spotter keeps visual contact with the driver the whole time the vehicle is backing.
• If the driver loses sight of the spotter, the driver stops backing immediately.
• The spotter has no other duties while spotting.
• No personal phones or headphones for the spotter.
• High-visibility clothing for spotters, especially at night.

The stop rule is the one we'd drill hardest. Losing sight of the spotter means the equipment stops, full stop, and stays stopped until eye contact is back. The no-extra-duties point matters too. On a busy day it's tempting to have the spotter grab material or keep an eye on a second task. Once that happens, nobody is really spotting.

OSHA's Struck-By eTool says the same thing from another angle: don't drive in reverse with an obstructed rear view unless the vehicle has an audible reverse alarm or another worker signals it is safe, and make sure all personnel are in the clear before using lifting devices.

Exclusion zones: keep people and equipment apart

Good signaling helps, but the stronger move is reducing how often people on foot and equipment share the same ground. OSHA's backover page describes internal traffic control plans, which project managers can use to coordinate the flow of moving equipment, workers, and vehicles to minimize or eliminate crossing paths and reduce the need to back up. Looped travel routes, set staging areas, and marked walkways all come out of that kind of planning.

The Struck-By eTool's guidance for cranes and overhead work says to barricade hazard areas and post warning signs, and one of its vehicle case reports describes a worker crushed by a backhoe's swinging superstructure where no barricades had been erected to keep employees out of the hazardous area. The same idea works for equipment travel and swing zones: a barricaded zone keeps people from drifting into a spot the operator isn't watching.

Technology can add a backup layer. OSHA mentions rear cameras and proximity detection systems: radar and ultrasonic systems that alert the driver with a visual or audio warning, and tag-based systems that can be programmed to warn workers, stop the vehicle, or both when someone gets within a predefined danger zone. These work best on top of good planning and spotting. OSHA notes that the solutions it lists after its spotter guidance, including cameras, proximity detection and internal traffic control plans, are not required by any OSHA standard and are provided for informational purposes only. They are still sound practice.

Who coordinates on a multi-employer job

Big projects stack employers: owner, general contractor, subs, and sub-tier subs. OSHA's Multi-Employer Citation Policy explains that on these sites more than one employer may be citable for the same hazard. It is a federal directive that State Plans were not required to adopt, so Wyoming OSHA's approach may differ. The policy describes creating, exposing, correcting, and controlling employers. A controlling employer has general supervisory authority over the site and must exercise reasonable care to prevent and detect violations. In practice, everyone sharing the ground has a stake in how equipment and people move around each other.

A few ways to set this up:

• Name one company that owns the site traffic control plan and who updates it as phases change.
• Cover equipment movement in pre-task planning for every crew running a lift or working near one.
• Use the daily coordination meeting to flag where equipment will run that day and where spotters are posted.
• Require each sub to pass site rules down to its sub-tier crews, and confirm it happened.
• Orient new and sub-tier workers on the traffic plan, signals, and exclusion zones before they start.

On any big job, that last item is easy to lose track of. A sub-tier crew that starts partway through a project needs the same orientation as the crews who were there on day one, so write down who is responsible for getting them up to speed.

What comes next

We'll follow the Wyoming OSHA investigation and share updates if findings or citations become public. Meanwhile, a check of your own spotter practices and coordination meetings this week is time well spent. Our thoughts are with the injured worker, his family, and his coworkers.

Questions about spotter programs or multi-employer coordination can go to Provisio EHS at 385-316-2837.

Sources

All retrieved Oct. 21, 2026.

• Cowboy State Daily, Oct. 15, 2026
• OSHA Today news digest, Oct. 21, 2026
• OSHA, Wyoming State Plan
• OSHA, Preventing Backovers: Backing Safety Solutions
• OSHA, Construction eTool: Struck-By
• OSHA, Multi-Employer Citation Policy, CPL 02-00-124