Abstract: At about 8:00 a.m. on June 23, 1989, Employee #1, a crane operator for Williams Construction Co., Inc., was stepping onto a concrete bridge abutment wall from the end of the bridge deck. There were two rows of steel reinforcing rods installed in the 50 ft long wall; the rods were evenly spaced, 18 in. apart, across the wall. There was a 6 in. opening between the wall and the end of the deck. The row of rods adjacent to the deck protruded 2 ft vertically from the wall and were 20 in. below the deck. The other rods were each 4 ft long and protruded at about 45 degrees away from the first row. As Employee #1 lowered his left foot to step onto the wall, he slipped into the 6 in. wide opening and fell onto one of the vertical reinforcing rods. He sustained an approximately 6 in. long puncture wound into his groin area, for which he was hospitalized. The rods were not guarded to eliminate the hazard of impalement and safe access was not provided from the abutment wall to the bridge deck.