UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

At 3:30 p.m. on October 21, 2021, an employee worked with three coworkers to fel l a thirty-five-foot wooden utility line pole. The employee and coworker #1 unlo aded a trailer while coworkers #2 and #3 began to dig a forty-five-inch diameter hole approximately one and a half feet deep around the pole in preparation for the cut. The employee then used an angle grinder to cut two steel guy wires that supported the pole as coworker #1 began a conventional wedge cut at the base of the pole facing the identified fall zone. Coworker #2 then held onto the two gu y wires while coworker #1 continued cutting the pole. At some point, the employe e grabbed one of the guy wires and entered the fall zone without notifying cowor ker #1 who continued to cut. The pole then fell and struck the employee on the h ead and right leg. The employee received blunt force trauma to the head and a le g fracture and taken to the hospital, where the employee died.