Abstract: Employee #1 was climbing to a section of tube and coupler scaffolding that had been erected approximately 40 ft above the ground on an access platform of an oil refinery process vessel. To access the scaffolding Employee #1 was required to step over a floor opening in the platform grating, a section of which had been removed to facilitate removal and replacement of process piping under repair. While attempting to step across the opening, Employee #1 fell 24 ft through the opening in a standing posture; he was impaled upon a protruding upright of another run of tube and coupler scaffolding and was killed.