ROWLEY, Mass. —
A tree worker died Thursday when his safety equipment failed and he fell 50 feet from a tree in Rowley.
David Bova, 34, of Salem, New Hampshire, was working on a crew from Mayer Tree Service at a home on Main Street.
Bova was in a harness in a tree preparing to remove a branch when the harness snapped, officials said.
Bova was taken to Anna Jacques Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
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The worker fell from a tree outside this house on Main Street in Rowley. (WBZ-TV)
ROWLEY, Mass. (CBS) –
A man working for a tree service company fell 50 feet out a tree in Rowley Thursday morning and died.
The 34-year-old from Salem, New Hampshire has been identified as David Bova. He was part of a crew from Mayer Tree Service of Andover, Mass. working at a home on Main Street around 8 a.m.
“The man was in the tree preparing to remove a branch when he suddenly fell from approximately 50 feet up. He was transported to Anna Jacques Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” Carrie Kimball Monahan, a spokesperson for the Essex District Attorney’s Office, said in a statement.
Emergency dispatchers at the scene could be heard talking about a severe head injury.
“While foul play is not suspected, the matter remains under investigation,” Kimball Monahan said.
The man’s name has not been made public.
There has been no comment yet from Mayer Tree Service.
According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records, the company has had some issues with falls in the past, once in 2008 and again in 2011. An OSHA spokesman told WBZ-TV there were no violations or citations in the 2008 incident. In the 2011 inspection, Mayer was cited for one serious violation with a proposed fine of $4,900. However, the company contested OSHA’s findings and the citation and penalty were dropped.
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