Abstract: Employee #1 and a coworker were engaged in lowering the starboard spud leg on a spud barge that measured 34 feet by 120 feet with spud legs located mid-barge, one on each side. A winch raises and lowers the 20 foot long spud legs. When the bottom of the spud leg is raised up even with the bottom of the barge, a pin (2 inches in diameter by 3 feet 4 inches long) is inserted through a hole in the spud leg and the leg is lowered until the pin is resting on the flange of the spud well, supporting the spud leg. One employee operated the winch and raised the spud leg up approximately 2 feet so that the pin was approximately 2 feet above the flange of the spud well. Employee #1 pulled the pin almost all the way out, with the end still approximately 1 1/2 inches in the hole, when the winch lowered the spud leg. This pinched and projected the end of the pin, which fatally struck Employee #1 in the head.