Abstract: At approximately 10:00 a.m. on July 15, 2004, an employee was working with a whacker in a trench. The trench was two-feet wide and approximately 7.5-feet deep. A four-inch diameter plastic pipe had been laid in the trench and the employee was using the whacker to compact the back fill dirt. When the trench was approximately six-feet deep, a side wall near the end of the trench caved in. This was dirt that had been previously disturbed. The employee was buried up to his stomach. The closest slum shore was approximately eight feet from the end of the trench. He sustained broken ribs and bruised lungs and had problems with his breathing. The employee was hospitalized for nine days.