Abstract: On December 14, 2001, Employee #1, a plant foreman, and a coworker, a loader operator, were attempting to clear a blockage from the hopper of a screw conveyor. The conveyor moves dried ground bakery products to a bucket elevator for loading onto trucks. The employees accessed the 8-foot-high 11-foot-long 5-foot-wide hopper by standing on the top of a high loader bucket. The bucket did not have guardrails. The employees were exposed to a fall onto the powder covered floor of the dry material room and, due to the approximate 18-inch distance between the top of the slightly elevated loader bucket and the hopper, into the 8-foot-deep hopper, where a 15-inch-diameter screw conveyor was rotating. While the employees were attempting to clear the blockage with metal poles, the foreman put his legs over the edge of the hopper, sat on the edge, and slipped. The loader operator stated that he caught him and suggested that the foreman not do that. The foreman declined to heed the suggestion and slipped a second time, falling into the hopper. The loader operator tried unsuccessfully to pull Employee #1 from the hopper. He then ran approximately 100 feet to the scale room where the conveyor controls were located. The loader operator shut down the conveyor, however, Employee #1 had been pulled almost completely into the screw, sustaining fatal injuries.