Abstract: At approximately 2:00 p.m. on May 4, 2009 a three-person crew of the employer was performing painting operations on a water tower using single-point suspension scaffolding with boatswain's chairs. Employee #1 and a coworker were both on boatswain's chairs performing painting work when they experienced mechanical malfunctions with their paint equipment at ground level. The coworker went down to the ground to help the ground crew to set up replacement spray equipment. When Employee #1 was also attempting to get to the ground in his boatswain's chair, the paint gun lines and vertical lifeline became tangled in a communication wire coming from a nearby maintenance building to the water tower. As Employee #1 was untangling the lines, he disconnected his lanyard from the vertical lifeline. Employee #1 also twisted around the leg of the water tower in an attempt to untangle his equipment. After untangling his equipment, Employee #1 attempted to go the rest of the way to the ground on the boatswain's chair. The boatswain's chair immediately fell approximately 12 ft to the ground. Employee #1 suffered a fractured L-2 vertebra. Witnesses reported that after the upper block of the suspension system fell to the ground during the accident, only one of the two eyes of the wire rope choker used to anchor the suspension system to the top of the water tower was still in the hook of the upper block. Employee #1 was hospitalized.