An employee working near a communications tower was fatally electrocuted in Wadesboro May 16.
The victim, whose name has not yet been released, was electrocuted when a boom truck hit a power line at about 1:10 p.m. May 16.
The boom truck “used to remove wooden mats contacted a power line,” according to Neal O’Briant, public information officer for the North Carolina Department of Labor. “The victim had been holding the hook used to remove the mats.”
Preliminary information shows that the victim worked for Ron Haugen, doing business as R.H. Construction, according to O’Briant.
O’Briant said the accident occurred near 4600 U.S. Highway 52 North in Wadesboro.
“The site was where a communications tower had been dismantled over the weekend,” O’Briant said.
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Division was alerted soon after the accident, O’Briant said.
“The other companies with which the Occupational Safety and Health Division has opened inspections are SBA Communications Corp., which was the owner of the tower, and Lookout Towers LLC., which was the company Ron Haugen subcontracted to do the dismantling of the tower,” O’Briant said.
Cherie K. Berry, state commissioner of labor, had few details about the accident on May 16 during an awards ceremony in Wadesboro.
Berry and her staff presented safety awards to several businesses and expressed her sorrow.
“Every time I see a notification of a fatality, my heart just sinks and it breaks for the family and company,” Berry said. “Tonight, just say a little solid prayer when you go to bed that that family will be okay.”
Berry also stressed that accidents like these highlight the need for vigilance in workplace safety.
“That’s why safety and health is so important, because those things happen in the blink of an eye,” she said. “In the blink of an eye, something can happen. Can we prevent every single accident that happens? I don’t think we can prevent every single one. But when we recognize the hazard that can cause an accident, we need to fix that right then. We don’t need to wait, we need to fix it right then so that accident won’t happen again.”
The accident occurred the same day that an employee working for an AT&T contractor died after falling from a cellular tower at a water treatment plant in Damascus, Maryland, according to a newsletter published by InsideTowers.com, a blog devoted to news about wireless towers.
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.