Abstract: At approximately 11:06 a.m. on August 23, 2011, an employee was using a gas powered hedge trimmer to trim the sides and top a group of Podocarpus shrubs approximately 10.25-ft. high. The employee was standing on a seven foot fiberglass stepladder trimming the top of the hedge in a paved parking lot. The paved parking lot was surrounded by a wrought iron fence that was topped with arrow shaped ornaments on top of each vertical bar in the fence. The employee was leaning backwards slightly while trimming the shrub and lost his balance causing him to fall backwards onto the fence. As he fell, his left forearm hit one of the ornamental wrought iron arrow causing his forearm to be fillet when he impaled the sharp ornamental fixture. The employee was taken by ambulance to Palomar Hospital in Escondido, California. The employee was hospitalized and had surgery on his left forearm on the same day as the accident.