An employee had been using a bucket truck to repair a telecommunications cable at a customer's residence. The employee completed the job and got down into the truck bed from the bucket itself, and was then stepping off the platform at the rear of the truck when he missed a step, lost balance and fell from the back of the truck to the ground approximately 4-5 ft below. The employee landed on his tool belt and the right side of his lower back. He was hospitalized with four fractured vertebrae in the lower back.