Worker Dies In Fall

The Times-Picayune yesterday reported that "A man working on a billboard plunged to his death Friday after accidentally receiving an electrical shock, New Orleans authorities said.

About noon, Guy Willmon, 30, climbed a ladder attached to a 30-foot-high billboard near the corner of Tulane Avenue and South Rendon Street, hauling a metal object over his shoulder, said officer Garry Flot, an NOPD spokesman.

When Willmon reached the top, the object touched an electrical wire, and Willmon received a shock, Flot said.

Willmon, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, was thrown from the ladder. He fell to the ground about three stories below and died, said John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator.

An autopsy later revealed that Willmon died from injuries he sustained in the fall, not from the electric current, Gagliano said.

Flot said it wasn't known what kind of work Willmon was doing. The name of the company he was working for wasn't available Sunday."

It seems that, no matter how often safety guys warn workers of the hazards associated with overhead electrical lines, our warnings are all too often ignored. The significant part of this story is that, although the electrical line contact caused the accident, the fall killed the worker!