Posted on Mon, Oct. 25, 2004
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi wildlife officials are
urging hunters to wear safety harnesses while climbing trees after
the deaths of two hunters last week.
Officials said Rudy Walker, 43, of Monticello, died
Thursday night after falling 16 feet from a tree while hunting, while
Christopher Spradley, 22, of Jones County, died of injuries sustained
in a fall Thursday afternoon in while hunting in Jasper County.
The hunters were not wearing safety harnesses when
they fell from tree stands, said Maj. Steve Adcock of the Mississippi
Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
"We have more injuries with tree stands every
year than anything else," Adcock said. "If you climb a
tree enough, you're going to fall, if you don't wear a harness."
Spradley fell about 25 feet, Adcock said.
Lawrence County Coroner Sidney Fortenberry said Walker,
who had been hunting with a friend north of Monticello on Fair River,
died of a cervical spine fracture.
"It's a metal stand with no rails around it," said
Fortenberry, describing the tree stand that Walker fell from last
week. "He fell out of it, landed on his head and neck, fracturing
his cervical spine and severing his spinal cord. Death was instant."
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Information from: The Clarion-Ledger,
