Abstract: Employee #1, a laborer, and three coworkers were closing rolling hatch covers on a 35 ft wide by 195 ft long hopper barge. One coworker was operating a crane mounted on a deck barge equipped with a spreader bar and a four-leg bridle. Employee #1 was standing on a hatch cover that was secured to another cover with two latches. The crane operator was lifting the spreader bar and bridles, trying to close two other covers so they could be latched when the latches securing the cover on which Employee #1 was standing broke loose, causing the covers to separate. He fell into the bottom of the hopper barge, sustaining fatal head and neck injuries.