AMELIA COUNTY, Va. -- A 24-year-old construction worker in was electrocuted Wednesday in Amelia County and died on his way to the hospital.
He had been trying to secure metal straps around rafters so the crane operator could put the rafters on top of a home being built at the end of Dash Lane in Jetersville.
The rafters, a crane and power lines were all part of a mid-morning tragedy at the end of Dash Lane.
"The lights flashed, then there was a loud boom,” said Perry Cosby, who had just walked by the new home construction site, when he heard the boom. He says he knew it was bad. "I had a friend get electrocuted the same way," said Cosby.
Cosby says other workers and neighbors had surrounded the victim, who deputies identified as William Brice Seay from Glen Allen.
William Brice Seay
"The young man was on the ground, unresponsive, and there was a guy working on him, giving him CPR was calling 911," said Cosby.
Amelia investigators said Seay died from his injuries on the way to a Farmville hospital and say there'll be no charges in what they're calling a tragic construction accident.
Southside Electrical Co-op officials tell CBS 6 that 14,400 volts of electricity was flowing through the lines.
"I feel sorry for his family and my heart goes out to them,” said Hunter Tate, who lives down the street from this site. He says he knows all too well what the family will endure in the weeks to come: his father was killed on a job site seven months ago.
"My dad was walking across a beam on a ladder and fell,” said Tate. “He landed on his head and broke his neck."
I am told by family members that Seay worked for his father and that his father was actually on site with other family members when the tragedy happened.
A member of Southside Electric said that by law the company has 24 hours to report the incident to OSHA.
