Abstract: At approximately 12:50 p.m. on April 18, 1986, Employee #1 was in a 30 ft long, 6 to 7 ft deep trench. He was one of a crew of welders that had just completed a cut on a section of 24 in. O.D. pipe. The section consisted of a 45 ft ell with a 7 ft section of pipe on one end and a 13 ft section on the other. The rest of the crew had left the trench and he was standing on the far end on a parallel existing pipe. A coworker, the swamper, attached the nylon sling choker style around the pipe and attached the end to a tooth on the backhoe bucket. When the backhoe operator started to lift the pipe, the pipe hit a side of the trench and the sling popped off the tooth. The pipe fell, pivoting on the ell, and striking Employee #1. He was knocked down on the opposite side of the existing pipe and killed.