Abstract: At 4:00 p.m. on July 11, 2011, employees were drilling a caisson on the side of a hill on an isolated dirt road. The caisson (hole) was about 16 feet deep when employees stopped drilling. Employee #1, the drill operator, walked over to the hole to take a measurement with a tape measure. While standing one or two feet from the hole, the ground underneath him collapsed and he fell into the hole. Another employee called 911, but cave-ins continued burying Employee #1 further and he was not visible when the sheriff and fire department arrived. Rescue efforts were stalled for hours while rescuers tried to secure some shoring and an excavator that was 6 miles away. The employee was found dead after 4 or 5 hours. Interviews revealed that there had been significant sloughing and belling in the caisson before the collapse.