Abstract: At 9:30 a.m. on July 27, 1993, Employee #1 was seriously injured when he fell through a rice storage bin opening and landed 20 feet below. Employee #1 was walking on top of a rice bin to close a valve which changes the flow of rice. He reached over a transverse enclosed screw auger and closed the valve. As he backed away from the screw auger he stepped in the square 24-inch hatchway opening which was either uncovered or not securely covered by its metal cover, falling into the bin and onto the steel bottom and use block. Emergency crews had to strap Employee #1 to a backboard and tackle in order to lift him up and out of the bin hatch cover. He was taken to Colusa Memorial Hospital and immediately transferred by helicopter to Chico Enloe Hospital where he was treated for four possible fractures to the left foot (requiring surgery with pins and screws) and two fractured vertebrae.