Abstract: A telephone company employee was standing on the ground, assisting the operator of an R. O. Corp. Polejocky series PJ200 digger-derrick in the removal of the butt of a wooden utility pole. The derrick was mounted on a 1986 International Harvester utility truck. The company's safe operating procedures for removing a pole butt called for the use of a pole butt jack. However, the employer allowed the use of the derrick in this operation, in direct violation of these procedures. The equipment operator was using the boom of the derrick to pull the pole butt out of the ground. The welds securing the boom to the turret broke. This allowed the boom to fall, and it struck the employee standing on the ground in the head. He died of his injuries.