A 76-year-old Alsace Township man died Saturday after being struck by a falling tree branch while working on his property, according to the Berks County Coroner’s Office.
Berks County Coroner Matthew J. Stitzel said the incident occurred around 12:39 p.m. on April 18 in the zero hundred block of Wanshop Road at a private residence in Alsace Township.
The victim was identified as Sherwood Brubaker, 76, of Alsace Township. Authorities said Brubaker was felling a tree when a branch near the top broke off and struck him.
Emergency responders from the Oley Fire & Ambulance Companies, Lower Alsace Fire & Ambulance Companies, and Mount Penn Fire Company extricated Brubaker from a wooded area and transported him to Reading Hospital.
Brubaker was pronounced dead at 1:45 p.m. in the hospital’s emergency department.
The coroner’s office determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head, and the manner of death was ruled accidental.
The Berks County Coroner’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Pennsylvania State Police Reading station.
