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PIERCETON - Authorities are investigating the death of an Evansville man who fell from the Pierceton area tower he was painting with another man.
Jerry G. Trammel, 29, Evansville, was dead at the scene of a 280-foot fall from a tower located on CR 525E, just east of Ind. 13, Pierceton. Trammel was on a two-man crew that was painting the tower.
Pierceton Emergency Medical Service responded to the 3:02 p.m. call Sunday to find Trammel already dead, according to the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department.
Trammel was wearing a safety belt while working on the tower, but authorities were unsure whether the belt had failed. A witness working at the scene told investigators the only time the painters detach their safety belts is to move up or down.
Tony R. Brown, the witness working with Trammel at the scene, told police he saw Trammel falling from the tower as he looked down. Investigators at the scene found no damage to the belt's hooks or to the belt itself, police reports said.
Trammel's employer, Mark A. Mayhugh, Evansville, a subcontractor for Nation Wide Towers, Henderson, Ky., told investigators the victim would have been using his own equipment.
The accident remains under investigation by the KCSD and the Kosciusko County coroner.
