Abstract: At approximately 2:20 on March 21, 1997, Employee #1 was working from a debris catch platform underneath a concrete bridge deck that was being demolished for replacement. The platform, meant primarily to keep concrete debris from falling into the river, was constructed of random cut 9 ft long, rough width cut 2 by 6 to 2 by 8, oak boards. They were resting on 12 ft 16 in. centers spanning between two of the bridge girders and supporting two parallel 4 ft by 8 ft sheets of 5/8 in. plywood. Employee #1 was loading concrete debris from the bridge deck into a 1/2 to 3/4 cu yd concrete bucket that was then lifted up by a 65 ton Grove mobile crane and hauled away in a dump truck. The concrete bucket had been sitting directly on the platform, disconnected from the crane. When the bucket was approximately half full, the foreman signaled the crane operator to swing around so that the cable affixed to the crane hook could be connected to the bucket handle. As the crane operator was lowering the cable and the employee was reaching up to grab hold of it, the platform suddenly collapsed and fell 40 ft with the bucket and Employee #1 into the river. He was killed. There were several causes for the accident: The platform could not support four times the maximum intended load; the employee was not wearing a life jacket when working over water; and the employee was wearing a safety harness but was not tied off to the bridge structure.