Abstract: Employee #1 and coworkers were raising a 25,000 lb culvert out of a creek bed using a 1 in. steel wire rope attached to a D-6 dozer. Having raised the culvert about 15 ft above the creek bed, they stopped to reposition the dozer. They had used a 9/16 in. wire rope sling wrapped four times through a hole in the culvert and around a large pecan tree near the creek banking in an attempt to hold the culvert in position. The sharp edges inside the culvert hole cut the cable wire sling, causing the culvert to fall back into the creek bed. Employee #1 was bending over the 1 in. wire rope to pick it up, when the culvert pulled the slack out of it. The wire rope struck Employee #1 in the head and killed him.