Abstract: On August 22, 2001, Employee #1 of Home Depot was asked by the Assistant Manager to retrieve a clothes dryer from the receiving area. At approximately 10:00 p.m., Employee #1 went to the receiving area and found it to be cluttered with large amount of boxes of merchandize and trash in the area around the baler. He located the dryer but could not physically get to the dryer because of the other boxes of merchandise in the area. Employee #1 told the night crew supervisor that he needed to get the clothes dryer, and the night crew supervisor got the forklift and started moving some of the pallets of merchandise out of the receiving area in order to clear a path for Employee #1 to reach the dryer. The forklift operator picked up a pallet of step ladders, which were 10 ft and 12 ft fiberglass and aluminum ladders. The ladders were shrink wrapped in bundles of five to six ladders and were stacked on the pallet two rows deep and three bundles high, which was 30-40 ladders total. The load was not secured to the pallet or to the forks. After placing the pallet of ladders on the forks, the operator began backing up slowly trying to move the load out of the area. The fork lift operator had to elevate the load in order to go over the other merchandise, and he had raised the forks up about 8 ft according to Employee #1, and was still backing up and the load of ladders which was extending out at least three feet on either side of the pallet and was hitting other boxes. Employee #1 was standing in front of the forklift and was trying to give the operator directions to assist him in moving the load out of the area. The operator's ability to maneuver the forklift was limited due to the size of the load and the other merchandise located in the area. When Employee #1 saw the load of ladders was not going to clear the boxes, he went over and tried to move the boxes out of the way. The load of ladders fell off the fork lift and knocked him down and landed on top of him. Employee #1 was unable to get out of the way. He was momentarily knocked out. He felt a lot of pain all over his body, and mostly on his right side including his shoulder and his right leg. He also had some cuts on his head. He was transported to Kaiser Hospital, Woodland Hills, where he was hospitalized for six days. He had surgery on his right leg, which was broken in five places and had to have a titanium rod placed in the femur and two rods in his right hip.