Abstract: On November 18, 1994, Employee #1, the grocery manager for Albertsons, was moving several pallets of bottled water out the back receiving service doorway and down a ramp (measured at a 11 percent slope) to a waiting customer. Each pallet weighed 1,500 lb. While moving the first two pallets down the ramp using a non-powered hand pallet jack, he had help from another clerk. When he was ready to move the last pallet, he again paged the clerk for help and was waiting for him at the top of the ramp, but the pallet started to move down the ramp as he was waiting. The brake system would not hold, and he was pinned against a guard post at the bottom of the ramp as he tried to guide it down. First aid was administered by the local fire department paramedics, and then Employee #1 was transported by ambulance to Roseville General, where he was treated for a compound fracture of the tibia and three breaks of the fibula of the left leg.