A Village of Ilion Electric Department employee is dead after an accident on Friday, Aug. 29, according to a statement from the Village of Ilion.
According to village officials, Ilion Electric Department employees were working at 166 Central Ave in the village, conducting a non-electrical detail.
This detail involved working on a concrete ground pad transformer unit, which required running a chase line for future electrical work. While carrying out this detail, Ilion Electric Department Foreman Philip Whynot inadvertently and accidentally made contact with an energized part of the transformer, causing his immediate death.
“[Whynot] started as a lineman in the department in Sept. of 2006,” a statement from the Village of Ilion reads. “He was promoted to the foreman position in 2021. [Whynot] was a dedicated employee to the department and village and had just made his intentions known of his retirement plan for next year.”
Village of Ilion officials said Whynot’s immediate family, friends, and the entire village of Ilion family were suffering due to this tragedy.
“The small town feel that comes from working for and living in Ilion makes this tragedy much harder to comprehend and make sense of,” the statement continued. “All of the village staff knew and interacted with Phil, many on a daily basis.”
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Village of Ilion employee dead after accident
Reporting by Casey Pritchard, Utica Observer Dispatch / Observer-Dispatch
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