N. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. - The death of a Lehigh County teenager who got caught up in a wood chipper has been officially ruled an accident.
Now, we're learning more about the victim. He has been identified as 17-year-old Isiah Bedocs. He was part of a tree removal crew working at a home on the 3700 block of Excelsior Road in North Whitehall Township. The County Coroner said he was pulled into the woodchipper at 1:39 p.m. Tuesday. He was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital, Cedar Crest, but he was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m.
We talked with a neighbor who tells us she saw the police response from her window.
"Medivac was here, and quite a bit of a State Police presence, and like I said, they were there for quite a while," said the woman, who did not want to be identified.
The neighbor said the owner of the house recently hired the tree removal company to help him refurbish the property.
"He's been working on the house for quite a while. He did take down a lot of trees, and the crew just came in recently to help him, because he had some big trees to take down," said the neighbor.
We now know the U.S. Department of Labor, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and State Police are involved in the investigation. The neighbor tells us she's just thinking about Bedocs' parents.
"My condolences to his family. My heart goes out to them, again it's just horrific that something like that had to happen. It's tough enough to lose someone so young, and to lose them so horrifically is just, it's beyond belief," said the neighbor.
We've learned Bedocs was a student at the Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, and he was also enrolled in the Whitehall Coplay School District, but he was being homeschooled. The school district tells us it has notified parents about the accident, and it's also offered counseling to any students who need it.
