Abstract: At approximately 2:50 p.m. on February 15, 2007, an employee, a laborer, stepped out of the confines of a trench box he was working in and was struck by and partially trapped by unconsolidated material that fell from the nearly vertical trench side walls. The employee had been joining sections of 8 inch by 14 foot sewer line in the bottom of the excavation. The trench in which the employee was working measured approximately 11-ft deep, 3-ft wide and 25-ft long. The trench had been excavated by a Caterpillar track hoe, Model Number EL200B. Two coworkers immediately contacted emergency medical services. The rescue attempts were unsuccessful and the employee, after having been taken by EMS services to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo., was pronounced dead.