PHOENIX — A Phoenix landscaping company is facing a $16,550 worker-safety fine after a tree trimmer died after getting trapped in a 50-foot palm tree earlier this year.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner says 42-year-old Jaime Yepiz-Solis died of suffocation.
Desert Saguaro LLC was cited on Thursday by Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH) for worker-safety violations connected to the May 10 incident. The ADOSH report said the Phoenix-based company exposed him to a suffocation hazard “without being trained on how to properly and safely complete the task.”
ADOSH said Jaime is one of three people who have died in the last five years in palm tree accidents.
His family talked to ABC15, the day after he was killed, to share memories of him.
“He just had the biggest smile ever,” said his daughter, Aimee Yepiz. “His smile lit up the room.”
On the day of the accident, he was hired to trim a palm tree that hadn’t been cut for years, said Patricia Perez, the mother of his children.
“It was a big job,” she said.
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He was more than halfway finished, she said, when he started yelling for help. 911 was called, and firefighters rescued him. But he later died at the hospital.
Perez said Yepiz-Solis had worked as a tree-trimmer for 12 years.
“He had been doing it for so long,” she said. “He was confident in what he was doing.”
ABC15 reached out to the company, Desert Saguaro LLC, by phone and email, but did not immediately hear back.
The company has an opportunity to try to appeal the citations and fines.
Email ABC15 Investigator Anne Ryman at: anne.ryman@abc15.com, call her at 602-685-6345, or connect on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.
