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Falling Tree Hits Worker, Knocks Him Into Ditch

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- A man is recovering after he was hit by a tree and knocked into a ditch at an excavation site Thursday morning in Westmoreland County.

It all happened around 8 a.m. off of Greensburg Road in Washington Township where a contracting company was working on a sewage project.

The workers were installing a pipe in a ditch that had been dug when a tree alongside of the ditch fell and hit a worker.

Officials say the man was knocked unconscious and into the ditch.

Rescue workers tried several ways of getting him out, and eventually succeeded using the bucket of an excavator.

"He reportedly was hit by a tree and knocked into the ditch," said Chief Clayton Murphy, of the Washington Township Fire Department. "He was not trapped in the ditch, it was more the injury from the tree hitting him. The extraction obviously was a little difficult because it was in a ditch."

The victim was flown to Allegheny General Hospital. There is no word on his condition.

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