Abstract: Employee #1 was driving a JD 4-wheel farm tractor, model 3020, from the farm's main ranch to a walnut orchard to connect a harrow and floating device and to work the ground in the orchard. He was proceeding north on the approximately 14 ft wide west bank of a canal when the ground gave way. The tractor's rear tires fell with the collapsing roadway. The vehicle rotated, counterclockwise, on its long axis and rolled over before coming to rest at a 90 degree angle to the canal. Employee #1 was pinned beneath the tractor, and died there from his injuries. The embankment was unstable because irrigation water, pouring through gopher holes in an adjacent alfalfa field had caused subsurface erosion. There was evidence of a large amount of soil and water having poured into the canal as a result. The tractor had neither seat belts nor a roll-over protection system.