Abstract: The employer had reinforced a vehicle loading ramp to carry heavier army tanks on and off the USNS Regulus and Pollux. On April 16, 1993, the ramp was being load tested. The ramp was secured to the Regulus' open door and weights were placed both on the door and the ramp for the first test. The weights from the door area were then moved onto the ramp behind those already there to simulate one tank behind the other. Before the last two weights could be placed on the ramp, it came loose from the door and the loose end fell to the barge where the back end rested. Employees #1 and #2, who were unhooking the weights on the outboard side of the ramp, were crushed to death when the barge tilted, the weights shifted, and the ramp slid into 135 ft of water in the Mississippi River.