text:  And that is a top priority right now. 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 cross beams, 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,