Abstract: On May 31, 2000, Employee #1, a truck driver, and seven coworkers were loading four 73.3-ton bulb-T concrete bridge girders onto individual trucks and trailers for transport to a Florida DOT highway bridge site. The trailers for the first truck, #410, had already been spread out on the yard. Two Mi-Jack Travelift straddle carrier cranes, model 750-D, were to lift each girder in tandem and place it on the trailers. Each Mi-Jack Travelift had two hoisting blocks, 8 parts per block and a 5.3-ton lifting beam attached to its two hoist blocks. Girder #10-D was the first of the 78 in. tall by 127 ft 3 7/8 in. long girders to be loaded. Travelift #4 was to lift and carry the east end of #10-D, and Travelift #7 was to lift and carry the west end. The riggers attached the girder to the two cranes' lifting beams and gave the signal for the lift to begin. When the huge girder had been raised approximately 12 ft above the graveled yard, the crane operators began their move toward the east, with the #4 crane backing up, and the #7 crane moving forward. The cranes had just begun to move when the load line on #7's westernmost hoist snapped. The west end of the girder and the corresponding end of the lifting beam fell, with the girder suspended approximately 11.5 in. above the ground. When coworkers went to investigate the collapse, they found Employee #1 had been crushed and killed under the west end of the girder. The total weight of the load was 78.57 tons, consisting of the73.27-ton girder and the 5.3-ton spreader bar. The employer was using 5/8 in. diameter, EIPS grade, IWRC core, 6 x 26, right alternate lay construction wire rope as hoist lines on the Travelifts. Mi-Jack Products, Inc., the crane manufacturer, recommended 5/8 in. diameter, 6 x 36, EIPS, IWRC, right regular lay construction for the load lines on its model 750-Ds. The front and rear hoist lines on Travelift #7 had just been replaced with new cable on April 28, 2000, but the use of the 6 x 26 cable had been going on for years.