A Joplin man has died from injuries sustained in a construction site accident.
Jess Wilson, 44, was pronounced dead at Washington Regional Hospital after he struck a high voltage power line with his head Sunday. Wilson and a co-worker were in a boom lift installing siding on an apartment complex when the accident occurred, police said.
Wilson was immediately rendered unconscious and the other man on the lift's platform, Patrick Skaggs of Joplin, performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived.
The Fayetteville Fire Department had to use a ladder truck to reach the man because the electrical burst shut down the boom lift's system. Southwestern Electric Power Company workers had to shut down the power to the lines before the man could be retrieved.
Officials said Wilson was transported to Washington Regional Hospital where he later died. Skaggs was also transported to the hospital.
Two other workers were in another lift 60 feet away when the accident occurred and felt the surge of electricity and complained of numbness, officials said. They were transported to the hospital.
A neighbor told a 5NEWS reporter on the scene that she heard a loud explosion.
"I heard like something just fell over actually and then when I started coming down the hill I heard everybody going 'get help now,'" said Georgianne Lobe, who lives at the Sunrise Manor Apartments near the job site.
Lobe said said the scene was chaotic.
"Everybody was rushing over there," she said. "There was a fire. They got it out."
Kenneth Perez, construction worker, said when he arrived from lunch he saw the police, fire department and EMS on scene. He said these accidents reminds him and his co-workers to keep safety a priority.
"It just gives you an insight that this is serious, you have to be careful, stuff like this can happen," Perez said.
The job site, the Vue Apartments on Stadium Drive, is the same location a 20-year-old man died May 5 when a hole collapsed on him as he was clearing debris.
