Tree trimmer falls to his death in central El Paso
A tree trimmer fell to his death Thursday in central El Paso, and according to a tree-service employee, the accident could have been avoided.
Lonnie Bishop of Bishop’s Palm Tree Trimmin’ told ABC-7 over the phone that the victim failed to fasten the safety chain at the top of the cherry picker, and that’s how he fell to his death.
It happened near the corner of Fort Boulevard and Justus Street. ABC-7 has learned the man’s name but wants to give authorities time to notify the victim’s family.
The tree didn’t appear to be a palm tree, but it looked like the man was able to trim about two-thirds of the way up the tree before he fell.
El Paso police confirmed that the man was taken to University Medical Center and pronounced dead.
A UMC spokeswoman recalled another tree-service accident in recent memory that took a life. That person was brought to UMC around the time of the freeze of 2011, when cold temperatures killed a number of palm trees in the borderland.
