Abstract: At approximately 1:45 a.m. on October 24, 2002, an employee and two other coworkers working for American Rice, Inc. #1 Comet Ln., Maxwell, CA, were working as a three-man crew loading a railroad hopper car with Mochi broken rice. Employee #1 was observing the filling of the hoppers from the top of the railcar, 15 ft by 2 ft high, and working from a 24-in-wide metal gate walkway. As the hopper filled, the supervisor called Employee #1 to come down from the railcar so that it could be moved and the next hopper could be filled. When Employee #1 neared the end of the walkway atop the railcar, he tripped over a handhold sticking up across the walkway, falling. Employee #1 was provided first aid by paramedics and transported by helicopter to Enloe Hospital in Chico, CA, where he was treated for an abrasion to the head and a broken wrist.