FORREST CITY, Arkansas (AP) -- Three men replacing guy wires on a
cellular telephone tower in Forrest City, Arkansas,
plunged 100 feet to their
deaths after a rope used to hoist them to the top of
the structure broke.
The men, part of a four-person crew, were killed
Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff's
investigator Glenn Ramsey said.
The crew worked for Allstate Construction Co. of
Wagoner, Oklahoma, and was
replacing the guy wires on a 250-foot tower owned by
Alltel Corp.
The dead were identified as Brian Barnes, 23, and John
Seabolt, 26, both of
Muskogee, Oklahoma; and Jamie Anders, 27, of
Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Ramsey said he was told the rope hoisting the men up
the tower was tied to the
front of a pickup truck driven by the crew's foreman,
who backed up, lifting the
men into the air. The foreman, identified as Barnes'
uncle, Forest Barnes, 50, of
Muskogee, was not injured.
David Bates, assistant area director with the
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration in Little Rock, said safety
investigators traveled to the site Thursday
morning. He said OSHA has regulations on how to hoist
workers but he wasn't
sure which rules would have applied.
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