Abstract: Employee #1 was operating an Extractovator turning machine over a 10 ft deep by 20 ft wide by 730 ft long trough that served as a compost reactor, when he was called on to look at a broken machine in another part of the plant. He radioed ahead, left his digger, and was not heard from again until his body was found hours later. He had apparently ridden or fallen onto an upper conveyor belt that moved compost material. The upper conveyor fed into an approximately 20 in. by 43 in. unguarded chute opening that led to another conveyor, approximately 6 ft below. Evidence indicates that Employee #1 went down this first chute, rode another conveyor, went through a second chute, rode another conveyor, and finally fell off as the belt left the rollers to climb to a final packer chute and conveyor. There was no hood, guard, grating, or interlocks to prevent a person on the upper chute from falling through it to the moving conveyor below. Employee #1 died as a result of a fractured neck.