Worker dies while taking down Christmas lights in South Carolina town, officials say
A worker in a bucket attached to a boom who was taking down Christmas decorations in a South Carolina town was killed Friday when the bucket struck a tree limb, officials said.
The man who was killed in Great Falls was identified as Gregory Shawn Tyson, 55, said Terry Tinker, Chester County coroner.
Tyson was in a a bucket attached to a boom atop a Town of Great Falls van when the incident happened after 2 p.m. Friday on Dearborn Street, Tinker said.
Workers were taking down town Christmas lights when the accident happened, Tinker said. Tyson was knocked to the ground and died at the scene, Tinker said.
Great Falls is a town of about 2,000 people along the Catawba River between Rock Hill and Columbia.
Tinker said he notified South Carolina officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) because the death was a work-related fatality.
S.C. OSHA requires all work-related fatalities be reported to the agency within eight hours, according to its website.
Efforts to reach OSHA officials Saturday were unsuccessful.
Tinker said the S.C. Highway Patrol is investigating because the van was believed to be moving on a road at the time of the incident.
The van was traveling on Dearborn Street in Great Falls when the bucket attached to the van by a boom hit a tree limb, Cpl. Joe Hovis of the S.C. Highway Patrol said in a statement.
The driver of the van was not injured, Hovis said.
No other information has been released. The incident remains under investigation by highway patrol troopers and the coroner’s office, officials said.
This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 11:26 AM.
