ERIE -- A skydiver making a Fourth of July jump died after he slammed into a utility pole, shearing part of it off, authorities said.

Darrell Breakiron, 51, of Erie, died at about 9 p.m. yesterday at Hamot Medical Center in Erie. An hour earlier he and three other divers were caught by a gust of wind while making a jump as part of a jewelry store's annual Fourth of July celebration, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said.

Breakiron was the son of the owner of Breakiron Jewelers, which had held the jumps for the past five years as a lead-in to a nearby fireworks display at Mercyhurst College, Cook said.

Breakiron, who died from chest injuries, had done more than 2,000 jumps before the accident Sunday night, Cook said.

Witnesses said the jumper's parachute became tangled in the wires as he fell to the ground, pulling wires down with him.

"He was just coming down, and I think he was too low," Jennifer Dodsworth, who watched the accident from the front lawn of her mother's house, told the Erie Times-News newspaper. "He just hit the telephone pole and cracked it."

David Andrews, Dodsworth's uncle, said he rushed over to the fallen parachutist and tried to revive him until paramedics arrived.