Arkansas Sign Worker Critical after Accident

Sign worker shocked unconscious in accident

Two employees of SECO Outdoor Advertisement narrowly averted electrocution Friday afternoon when they were in the process of hanging a billboard advertisement in front of Harmon Outdoors on Interstate 30.

Lt. Lisa Wylie, public information officer for the Benton Police Department, identified the two employees as Matt Johnson, 22, and Wesley Copeland, 20.

Copeland escaped injury, but Johnson was not so fortunate. He is hospitalized today in the intensive care unit of University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Medical Center in Little Rock.

Wylie said the incident apparently resulted from a piece of conduit falling onto a live electrical wire, charging all of the metal on the billboard structure.

Upon arrival of police and rescue personnel from Benton Fire Department and Saline Memorial Hospital's MedTran ambulance service, both men appeared to be fine and were communicating with rescue personnel, Wylie said.

"They were told to remain still until employees of First Electric arrived to shut off the power to the line," she said.

"Matt Johnson was standing in between the two signs when he moved and touched some metal portion of the sign," she said.

This action caused Johnson to suffer electrical shock and a loss of consciousness, she said.

After an employee of First Electric arrived, the pole was removed from the wire and Johnson was lowered to the ground, where rescue personnel began treatment, she said.

Johnson was transported by Med-Flight, the air ambulance service of Baptist Health, to UAMS.

"Johnson was breathing on his own when he was taken from the scene," Wylie said.