Abstract: Employee #1 had been a laborer for an underground utility installation contractor for 3 years. He had been assigned the task of unloading ten 5 foot by 8 foot steel trench plates off a flatbed trailer and onto the ground. This procedure involved rigging steel slings to the headache ball of a crane that was mounted on the truck pulling the trailer. Employee #1 had finished unloading the plates and proceeded to walk to the end of the 40 foot trailer. As he walked directly away from the crane, the operator attempted to secure the load line via a sling to the cross brace provided for this purpose. As the operator attempted to take up slack on the load line, the cross brace that had been securing the sling and the headache ball broke loose from the welds and flew through the air, striking the employee in the neck and jaw. Employee #1 was hospitalized for over 3 days for treatment of head and jaw wounds.