A Newport man working for a Pittsfield company died Monday afternoon after falling from a crane at the NewPage Paper Mill in Rumford.
Brant Munster, 35, of Newport, was pronounced dead at the scene after he accidentally fell from the basket of a crane he was working on at about 1:50 p.m. Monday, according to Rumford Police Chief Stacy Carter.
“Munster was approximately 28 feet in the air in the catwalk of the crane when he struck a roof support and fell out,” Carter said Tuesday afternoon.
Munster worked for Somatex Material Handling, of Pittsfield. Calls to the company have not been returned.
Maryann Medeiro, area director for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Maine, said OSHA was notified Monday about the death and is investigating the incident.
“We’re in the very beginning of the investigation, which is very in-depth so we can determine if any OSHA standards were violated,” she said.
The Rumford mill has been in operation since 1901 and employs about 800 people, according to NewPage, the parent company that operates the mill.
Somatex started in 1989 and operates from the Pittsfield-Detroit area.
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