Abstract: Employee #1 and two coworkers, who were working for a framing contractor, had just returned from lunch. The exterior walls had already been erected and they were framing the interior walls of the second floor. The 19-year-old employee was building the interior wall that would enclose the stairwell when he inadvertently stepped into the unguarded opening and fell to the basement floor. He died of massive head trauma. None of the floor openings in this two-story duplex had been covered or guarded. The employer is a small, family-oriented business, which had been in operation for approximately three years. No safety training was provided and no safety and health policy was in effect.