Abstract: Employee #1, a laborer, and a machine operator, who was also the owner and president of Dex, Inc., were working at a trench excavation. They were setting an 8 ft by 8 ft by 3/4 in. steel plate at the open end of a trench box in the excavation. The plate was being set at the west end of the stacked trench boxes already there. The regular practice was for the operator to set the plate into the trench using a three-leg wire rope sling attached to a hook on the bucket of the excavator while the laborer guided the lower portion of the plate close to the trench box. As the plate was set on the ground, it normally sunk into the earth and this provided support for the plate as it was unhooked from the sling. Once the plate was disconnected, the laborer would walk clear of it and the operator would position the boom/stick up and the bucket teeth down to push the plate into the ground. This same practice was followed on the day of the accident. After Employee #1 released the steel plate from the wire rope sling, he started to move clear of the plate so the operator could position the bucket of the Cat 245 excavator with its teeth down. The operator raised the boom/stick just as the plate began to teeter and fall backward toward Employee #1. He had enough time to turn around and see the plate as it fell, but he was unable to get clear. Employee #1 was crushed by the steel plate; he was pronounced dead at the scene.