Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290620
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE AREA MAN DIES WHEN POLE DISLODGES

Napoleon "Sonny Boy" Shipman of 9531 Burlington Circle N.W. was working with a crew putting new poles along railroad tracks, Petersburg Police Department Detective William Kissner said.

The 45-foot pole, which was held by a cradle on one side of the truck, was dislodged when the lip of a bucket on a boom pushed one end off the cradle.

Shipman, who was standing on the ground, was hit in the back of the head. He died about 12 hours after the 12:15 p.m. accident.

Shipman was wearing a safety hat at the time of the accident, Kissner said.

He was an employee of the railroad's communications department, said Don Piedmont, director of public relations for Norfolk Southern in Roanoke.