An Illinois public works employee drowns in a water main vault. Two employees in Utah are found dead after oxygen displacement from argon gas. A worker in Kansas succumbs to asphyxia due to nitrogen gas exposure and oxygen deprivation. Two workers at a Kentucky sanitation plant die after getting trapped in a sewage intake system. What do all of these devastatingly-familiar stories have in common? All were completely-preventable confined space-related deaths in 2023. This session will delve into the details of each haunting story to better understand what went wrong and what could have been done differently to prevent the fatalities. Along with a helpful CSE Risk Identification checklist and a few other CSE risk identification tools, attendees will leave the session with the ability to define and recognize confined spaces, tools to identify and understand the unique risks posed by confined spaces, and how to determine the “worst-case scenario” for effective risk mitigation.