Abstract: In the pouring of concrete for building floors and walls having steel reinforcements over an area to be poured and a series of parallel spaced rows of longitudinally spaced upright dowel bars extending over the area, the method of protecting workers from impalement and injury due to a fall onto the bars consists of providing a series of downwardly facing dowel guard channels having depending support pipes and selectively positioning channels over a series of dowel bars in each row and assemblying the respective pipes over and upon the dowel bars of each row, the rows of channels being co-planer for forming a protective cover over the dowel bars. The safety dowel guard includes a downwardly facing channel and a series of longitudinally spaced support pipes within each channel, at one end secured thereto and with their other ends depending below the channels adapted to telescope over a corresponding series of dowel bars. A fastener secures each pipe to a dowel bar.