Abstract: At approximately 7:40 a.m. on May 24, 2005, an employee, a solid waste equipment operator, was on a residential collection route operating a 1999 Volvo refuse truck with an automated refuse collection arm. The automated arm extended out toward plastic refuse cans placed on the street, grabbed them, raised them up and dumped them in the hopper, then lowered them back to the street, and finally the arm retracted back to its stowed position. The operation of the automated collection arm was controlled by four solenoids mounted on the arm carriage. These were the IN, the UP, the Un-dump, and the Dump solenoids. Occasionally, the arm got stuck at the extended position, and the IN function had to be operated manually in the field to bring the arm back in the stowed position in order to drive the truck back to the maintenance yard for repairs. There were three options to accomplish this. One option was to bleed the hydraulic fluid and push the arm in by hand, a rather messy option. The second option was to tap the IN solenoid intermittently to get the arm back into the stowed position, an option used by the employee in the past. The third option was to call a mechanic to the field to trouble shoot and fix the problem, a preferred option. The employee used the second option. He climbed on the loader carriage, placed his right foot on the loader track of the automated arm and pressed the IN Solenoid mounted on the 4-stack valve in an effort to retract the automated arm manually. The 4-stack support rolled back on its track to its stowed position, crushing the employee's right foot between the IN Limit Switch and its striker. The employee was transported to Riverside Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where he underwent a surgery to repair his fractured right large toe. Thee employee was hospitalized for three days.