UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 2:45 p.m. on November 24, 2020, Employee #1, a Laborer employed by a small co nstruction company and a coworker, the company's owner, were building a new sing le family home. Employee #1 and the owner, the only persons at the site, were i n the process of moving precast concrete blocks into position to make a level pa d for the excavator to sit on. According to the owner's subsequent statement, h e was in the excavator and operating it to move the concrete blocks, which each measured 6 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet and weighed approximately 5,400 pounds, whil e Employee #1 was rigging up the blocks. Neither was wearing head protection. According to the owner, he became distracted and inadvertently hit the excavator 's swing lever, causing the excavator's arm to swing. The excavator's bucket, a ttached to the end of the arm, struck Employee #1's chest. Employee #1 sustaine d blunt force crushing injuries to his chest and was killed.