9th Death of 2008

Article courtesy of WirelessEstimator.com

Painter succumbs at base of broadcast tower site

July 21, 2007 - A tower painter was discovered by a broadcast engineer at the base of WDAZ's 1,400-foot tower in Petersburg, ND yesterday.
The Nelson County Sheriff's Department responded to a call at about 6:00 P.M. from the station's engineer, Nate Millard, who discovered the body of 38-year-old Darrel Hovde of Mandan.
Authorities said Hovde worked for All State Tower Company of Bismarck.
Hoyde was working alone painting the tower, Millard said, at about the 100-foot level. When Millard looked out a second story window he said he discovered the tower painter laying on his side in a semi-fetal position.
It appeared to Millard that Hoyde had fallen from the TV tower. "You could see where a trail of paint ended about 50 feet up," Millard said.
Millard said Hoyde still had his safety equipment on. Hovde's body has been sent to Bismarck for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. If the coroner identifies that Hoyde died from blunt trauma, he will be the ninth communications worker that was killed this year from falling from a communications tower.

8th Death of 2008

Article courtesy of WirelessEstimator.com

New Jersey tech is the nation's eighth fatality
 
July 19, 2008 - Vineland New Jersey Police Chief Timothy Codispoti has confirmed that the nation lost another tower technician this year when a Franklinville man died yesterday after falling approximately 60 feet from a cell phone tower yesterday.

Gerard M. Leclercq, employed by Paramount Advanced Wireless LLC of Pennsauken, was working with two other crew members when he fell. The 55-year-old tower technician had been working on a Crown Castle International tower off of Panther Rd.
Leclercq, who reportedly had family working for him in the industry, fell at approximately 10:50 a.m. while his two coworkers were on the ground, according to Vineland Detective Sergeant Len Wolf.
Investigators from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were on the scene and investigating the incident until late Friday evening.
Paramount Advanced Wireless LLC is a well-known, long-established company that has its roots in the communications industry since the early build-out days of cellular communications. The firm has taken an active role in tower safety and is a participant in an industry OSHA safety alliance.
Leclercq's death was the eighth fatality in 2008 of a worker falling from a communications structure.