A 43-year-old assemblyman died on May 26, 1999, from chest injuries he received earlier that day when struck by a high-pressure water jet emitted after the failure of a gasket during a hydrostatic test of a cooling coil for an air-cooled heat exchanger. At the time of the incident, the victim was part of a two-man team conducting hydrostatic testing at a heat exchanger manufacturing company. The laborer was positioned on a stepladder near the heat exchanger coil manifold to close an isolation valve on the pressure line connected to the manifold flange when the gasket failed, releasing a high-pressure water jet in the direction of the worker. The water struck the assemblyman in the chest, knocking him approximately 20 feet off the end of a loading dock onto the concrete drive below. Another employee nearby immediately contacted 911 by mobile phone, and the victim was evacuated by helicopter to a local hospital, where he died from injuries sustained in the incident.