Abstract: At approximately 10:00 a.m., Employee #1 was asked to leave the second level of an upper pit and go to the main office to attend a safety meeting. While driving in a 560 International front end loader in first gear, Employee #1 drove through a road cut around a left hand curve. His right front tire hit a small berm adjacent to an intersecting road. The berm was there to protect a shallow drainage ditch. The sudden force and pressure resulting from the impact on the right tire caused the steering wheel to spin around suddenly, yanking Employee #1 over to the left against the steering and gear shift mechanism. After a moment of bouncing, he hit the brakes but they failed, so he dropped the loader bucket, which brought the loader to a stop off to the right of the road in soft dirt. He shut the engine off. His seat belt was on all the while. Employee #1 was told to stay in the cab until medical help arrived. He was removed within ten minutes after coming to a stop and taken to a local hospital via ambulance, where he was treated for bruises to the head and lungs and a cracked rib. Subsequent inspection of the front end loader revealed that a brake air line had broken as a result of the sudden impact with the berm. Employee #1 stated that the brakes were operating before he hit the berm. According to Employee #1, because of the loader's blind spot created by its large size, the lowered bucket, and his position relative to the road edge, he did not see the small berm. He also misjudged the road edge as he turned.