Abstract: At approximately 1:30 p.m. on August 1, 2000, Employee #1, a plasterer, was climbing a metal frame scaffolding to the third level work platform to begin plastering the walls of a retail building. When he reached the third level, he grabbed the middle guardrail. As Employee #1 leaned or pushed forward, the midrail came loose and he fell backward 18 ft 6 in. to the ground. He sustained a head laceration and a fractured scapula and was taken by ambulance to U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he was treated and released the following morning. The locking lug holding on the guardrail had become jammed in an open position from accumulated paint and plaster.