Abstract: Employee #1 was helping to load concrete barriers from a road onto a flatbed trailer, or float. Each 12 ft long by 32 in. high barrier weighed between 4,500 and 4,700 lb. Three barriers had already been loaded; a fourth was being set on the flatbed by a 980B loader. Wire rope slings had been placed into grooves on the bottom at each end of the barrier and secured by metal pins. The two 3/7 in. thick slings were attached to the loader with a clevis. Employee #1 removed the sling from one end of the barrier and threw it in toward the loader, clear of the barrier. He then crossed under the loader's elevated bucket, removed the pin, and threw the second sling to the outside, away from the loader. As Employee #1 stepped back between two of the previously loaded barriers, the loader operator backed his vehicle away from the float. The sling that had been thrown away from the loader became caught on a bracket on the side of the float, causing the float to tip as the loader reversed. The barrier that had just been loaded slid, along with Employee #1, from the float to the ground. He became pinned between two of the barriers and was killed.