Abstract: Employee #1 and a coworker, of Creative Builders, Iglewood, CA, were assigned to unearth a perforated pipe drain buried behind a retaining wall in about 9 ft of uncompacted fill dirt. There was a 3 ft pile of fill dirt behind the retaining wall. They were sent to the job without any provisions for shoring or discussion of sloping to be done while digging. The two laborers dug a trench along the back of the retaining wall, throwing the spoil onto the pile above them. At lunch time, a supervisor came by to give one man his check . He saw the two employees in the trench, which was already over their heads, without any provisions for shoring or sloping. The trench later collapsed. Employee #1 was completely buried by loose dirt and died of asphyxia.