Abstract: At approximately 11:15 p.m. on September 12, 1990, a dispatcher at the Marin Municipal Water District contacted the acting foreman of the standby crew about a leak that needed to be repaired in San Anselmo, CA. During the course of the work, Employee #1, the acting equipment operator, was struck in the chest by a backhoe bucket. The crew consisted of the acting foreman, two utility workers, and Employee #1. The district had an unwritten policy of not having an acting foreman and an acting equipment operator on the same emergency repair crew. However, no regular heavy equipment operators were on the standby list or would come to work. The acting foreman had the dispatcher call Employee #1, whom he knew "had been used as an operator in the past."