Construction worker, 45, killed in Forsyth County

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A man operating heavy machinery in a Forsyth County development died Thursday morning after hitting a tree, a fire department captain said.

The man, identified by the deputy coroner as Jeffery Lee McGhee, was working on a home under construction off James Burgess Road in the southeastern part of the county at the time of accident, Capt. Jason Shivers with the Forsyth County Fire Department told the AJC.

Emergency responders were called to a home on Bramble Bush Way in the Turnberry subdivision around 11:15 a.m., Shivers said.

"The patient was an obvious fatality," Shivers said.

McGhee, 45, of Cumming, had been operating a skid-steer loader on a steep incline when he ran into a tree, Shivers said. The machinery didn't roll over, but McGhee apparently died from the impact, Shivers said.

The incident was reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which dispatched investigators to the scene, Shivers said. Following the OSHA investigation, firefighters extricated the man's body, which was taken to the Forsyth County coroner.