RAY HULL: It was a cell phone tower for Nextel. MARTIN SMITH: The increased pressure almost killed Hull. So instead of contracts to build a tower, you have contracts to build 40 towers. WINTON WILCOX, Tower Industry Veteran: Fifteen, twenty years ago, a good tower company might- might build four towers a year. RAY HULL: There was a big push for these cell companies to start expanding out and covering the dead areas, everybody trying to outdo everybody. MARTIN SMITH: But with the boom in cell phones, the industry suddenly changed. I'm third generation in that line of work. RAY HULL: Any major tower company knew who I was, knew who my dad was, my granddad. Before cell phones, he worked mostly on TV and radio towers. MARTIN SMITH: Ray Hull is a tower climbing veteran. RAY HULL, Former Tower Climber: Any of your cell phone carriers, as far as they're concerned, safety is our issue, not theirs. MARTIN SMITH: After poring over thousands of documents, we discovered a complex web of subcontracting that has allowed the major carriers to avoid scrutiny when accidents happen. INTERVIEWER: But did they address the question of responsibility for. MARTIN SMITH: To find out why, reporters at FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigated the 50 cell-related deaths. INTERVIEWEE: Jay Guilford, actually- this is what he was using when he. Since 2003, there have been nearly 100 climbers killed on radio, TV and cell towers, a rate that is about 10 times the average for construction workers. Over the last decade, other men have been falling to their deaths- North Carolina, Arizona, Kentucky, Florida, Iowa. MARTIN SMITH: Guilford's death wasn't an isolated case. Jay ain't even been in it a year when the accident happened. We need an ambulance.ĩ11 OPERATOR: OK, I'll get them down there. We just had a man fall from a 200-foot tower. TOWER WORKER: Yes, we're working on a tower site. MARTIN SMITH: The job attracts a certain kind of worker. TOWER CLIMBER: Yeah, 1,500 feet! Look at that view! We get paid for this! One person drops a wrench and it'll kill somebody. ROBERT HALE, Former Tower Climber: People don't understand what the danger is to tower climbing. MARTIN SMITH: Tower climbers install and service cell phone antennas, ascending hundreds, sometimes more than a thousand feet. TOWER CLIMBER: People have no idea what we go do on a day-to-day basis to give them that service when they're holding their cell phones. MARTIN SMITH, Correspondent: It's one of America's most dangerous jobs.
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