Men who died in water tower fall identified

Nilaj died of head trauma and Vukaj’s cause of death is listed as multiple traumatic injuries, according to county coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix.

Around 7 p.m. Friday, the workers reportedly fell about 100 feet to their deaths, according to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office. Detective Kim Peters said the incident in being investigated as an accident.

“It looked like they were trying to fix some cabling and it broke,” Peters said.

The men were not wearing harnesses, according to Peters.

The sheriff’s office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are continuing to investigate.

Nilaj died at the scene, and Vukaj died while being loaded into onto an Air Care helicopter that landed at Talawanda Middle School, according to the sheriff’s office.

The 150-foot tall water tower is owned by the Southwest Regional Water District. The workers were contracted through Farmington Hills, Mich.-based V&T Painting LLC, for the Southwest Regional Water District.

Norma Pennock, operations manager for the Southwest Regional Water District, said the company had been working at the tower since Oct. 14. It is one of eight tanks the company is under contract to paint.

Six of the projects have been completed and two remain, Pennock said. Work has stopped at the Oxford-Reily Road tower until investigation is completed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Bill Wilkerson, OSHA Cincinnati area director, said investigators were back at the scene over the weekend and still need to talk with the painting company workers who have returned home to prepare the funeral services for their co-workers.

Wilkerson said the investigation could take up to two months to complete and noted some areas they may want to inspect are located “95 feet in the air, which makes it a little tricky.”

He would not comment on the specifics of the incident, but said typically workers working that high in the air would be required to wear harnesses.

The incident is being investigated by the sheriff’s office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.