Michael D. Clark, Sheila McLaughlin, and Henry Molski

Cincinnati

A routine bowling alley maintenance call ended in death for a 53-year-old man in Fairfield on Thursday.

Fairfield Police said the worker at Northwest Lanes died when his clothing was entangled in the pin-setting machinery.

On Friday, the Butler County Coroner's office identified the man as David Geiger, of Cincinnati.

Geiger died of traumatic asphyxia and the death was ruled accidental, a coroner's report stated.

Though bowlers were playing at the time on other lanes, no one saw or heard the man die, said Fairfield police spokesman Doug Day.

He had worked at the alley for four years and lived in Southwest Ohio but not in Fairfield.

Another worker at the family-owned alley, which has operated since 1976, found the employee after he did not respond for 10 minutes to another call to fix another bowling lane.

Owners declined to comment other than to say they were "very sad and upset."