Abstract: Employee #1 was working as a maintenance and repair contractor for a department chain. He was using a 12 ft fiberglass ladder, model 410-12, with a 300 lb capacity rating, to retrieve copper piping from an elevated location when he fell off the ladder. As Employee #1 dropped, one of his legs became caught in the rungs so that he was in an inverted position and his head struck the floor. He was transported to the hospital, where he died of head injuries. Subsequent investigation shoed the ladder to be defective. One of the legs had a wire wrapped several times around it, the last rung was bent, and the top 3 ft of the side rail had been ripped off.