EXETER TWP., Pa. – Authorities in Berks County are investigating a deadly workplace accident that happened on Wednesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police in Exeter Township and the Berks County Coroner responded to a report that came in at 10:54 a.m. of a male worker in a bucket truck in the rear of a private residence in the 4000 block of Grant Street in Exeter Township.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The victim, a 31-year-old Reading man employed by a local tree service company, had reportedly been trimming a hedgerow when the equipment he was operating came into contact with an electrical power line, according to coroner Matthew Stitzel.<\/p>\n
Emergency responders arrived on scene and initiated an investigation into the incident.<\/p>\n
The Berks County Coroner\u2019s Office was notified and responded to the scene at 11:33 a.m., according to a news release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The worker was pronounced dead at the scene, the coroner said.<\/p>\n
The identity of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.<\/p>\n
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was notified of the incident and was sending an investigator from Harrisburg to the scene as part of the ongoing workplace safety investigation, according to the coroner.<\/p>\n
The Berks County Coroner\u2019s Office was assisted at the scene by the Exeter Township Police Department, Exeter Fire Company, Penn State Health EMS, and Met-Ed Electric Company.<\/p>\n
69 News reached out to FirstEnergy for more information about the overhead wire.<\/p>\n
A FirstEnergy spokesperson says that after receiving a call from Berks County emergency dispatchers, they de-energized a nearby power line to ensure the safety of first responders on the scene.<\/p>\n
Shutting off the power line impacted approximately 200 customers in the area, according to FirstEnergy officials.<\/p>\n
They say that power will be restored as soon as emergency management personnel provide the all-clear.<\/p>\n
An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday at Reading Hospital, the coroner said.<\/p>\n
The cause and manner of death remain under investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXETER TWP., Pa. – Authorities in Berks County are investigating a deadly workplace accident that happened on Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,94555,17147,1411,94554,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-216066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-bucket-truck","tag-coroner","tag-exeter-township","tag-landscaping-accident","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}