Abstract: At approximately 10:20 a.m. on February 7, 2004, Employee #1, a customer service person, who was supervised by a supervisor, was attempting to backup a forklift in the wash bay area of the rental yard at United Rentals, located in San Diego, California. Employee #1 had his right hand outside the operator's compartment (ROPS), while he was backing the forklift. Employee #1 backed the forklift into a backhoe thereby crushing his fingers between the ROPS and the backhoe. Employee #1 amputated the right ring finger just above the knuckle and fractured and cut the right middle finger during the crushing incident. The amputated portion of the right ring finger was retrieved by the supervisor. Employee #1 was transported by paramedics to Sharp Hospital. He was in the hospital for approximately 24 hours and then released. Doctors were unable to reattach the amputated portion of the right ring finger. Employee #1 died later on.