Abstract: At 6:15 a.m. on February 17, 1988, Employee #1, a welder, and a coworker, a superintendent, went to pier #36 to determine the amount of work necessary to repair barge #4. Access to the barge was provided by portable stairs with a small platform on the pier. They had to step across a 3 ft gap over water to get on the barge. The superintendent stepped across onto the barge, but Employee #1 apparently lost his balance when he tried to step across, and he fell into the water between the barge and the pier. He struck his head on the pier during the fall, and was knocked unconscious. Employee #1 surfaced under the pier and because it was before daybreak, it took rescuers between 3 and 5 minutes to find him.. CPR was administered, but Employee #1 never regained consciousness. He drowned.