Tower Climber Survives Fall

April 9, 2013

A man working for a communications contractor survived a harrowing fall, while upgrading a 150-foot cell tower on the morning of April 3 in Minor, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to 3100 Bonnie Avenue at 11 a.m. to investigate a report of a man who had fallen from a cell phone tower. When they arrived on the scene the tower climber was conscious and speaking to paramedics.

The man said he had been working on the tower, which is owned by Crown Castle International according to the TowerSource database, when he fell about ten feet, rolled off a boom and fell another 130 feet. At the last moment, he became tangled in ropes that stopped him about 10 feet above the ground. Saving his life.

As a result of the fall, he suffered severe injuries to his right hand and shoulder and was transported to University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital for treatment.