Abstract: At approximately 4:00 p.m. on December 18, 2000, Employee #1 was removing road signs located 4 ft from the edge of the road, along the southbound lane of a highway and positioning them 12 ft from the edge of the road to make way for the widening and resurfacing of the roadway. Employee #1 was working alone. While there were no witnesses to the accident, it appears that Employee #1 was carrying a pry bar, used to guide the signs into the holes, in the cab instead of the bucket. When Employee #1 got off the machine to remove a drift pin, he left the front end loader running and went around to the back of the machine in the area between the boom and the outrigger. When Employee #1 went to pick up the bar, it came into contact with the hydraulic lever, which actuated the hydraulics and caused the boom to immediately move, pinning him between the outrigger and boom. Once actuated the boom will rotate 90 degrees in less than two seconds. Employee #1 was crushed between the rear boom and one of the outriggers of the front-end loader he was using. Employee #1 was fatally injured.