Abstract: At 3:30 p.m. on February 23, 2024, an employee working as a construction laborer for a water and sewer line contractor was guiding a 24-inch by 8-foot 2,000-pound concrete pipe into position. The pipe was suspended from a steel cable attached to an excavator bucket and was going to be joined with the already laid pipe sections. The employee was working from an approximately 12-foot-deep trench inside of an 8-foot-wide steel trench box. A coworker operating the excavator hit the controls causing the load to shift and strike the employee between the pipe and the wall of the trench box. The employee died from blunt force trauma to his chest trauma.