Abstract: At 12:00 p.m. on September 23, 2004, Employee #1, with R-Help Construction Co., Inc., was with a crew preparing a wooden form for a concrete storm drain manhole. The excavation for the manhole was measured to be 6.5-ft-deep. The soil technician on the site indicated that the soil's classification was c-soil/silty/cobbles. The excavation was not shored, no shield system was used, and it was neither sloped nor benched. Employer's foreman stated that he removed the shoring the day before to prepare to place the wooden forms. A few hours prior to the accident, a backhoe bucket struck a water line few yards uphill from the location of the accident. When water flowed into the excavation, the employees climbed out of the excavation. Approximately three hours after the water was shut off, the foreman, Employee #1, and a coworker went back into the excavation to remove the accumulated water and prepare for the wooden form placement. The southwest face of the excavation caved in, and Employee #1 was struck by loose rocks and soil. He sustained multiple contusions.