Man dies in tree-cutting accident in southern Whitley County

Officials attempted to use an all-terrain vehicle owned by the county to rescue a man hit Tuesday by a falling tree. The man, Chad Anderson, eventually died from his injuries in a Tennessee hospital.

A local man died following a tree cutting accident in the woods in far eastern Whitley County Monday afternoon.

A University of Tennessee Medical Center spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Chad Anderson had passed away at the hospital but was unable to offer any other details.

Whitley County E-911 dispatchers were notified about 12:23 p.m. Monday about an accident that Anderson suffered near Mossy Gap Cemetery Road, which is about 11 miles east of Williamsburg.

“He just cut a tree and it fell on him,” said Patterson Creek Volunteer Fire Chief Pee Jib Paul.

Paul said that a man, who was with Anderson, cut the tree off of him and then called 911.

Members of the Patterson Creek Volunteer Fire Department responded to the scene along Whitley County EMS.

The Williamsburg Fire Department also responded and transported Whitley County Emergency Management’s six-wheel drive rescue mule to the scene and deployed it, but rescue workers had already gotten to Anderson by then.

Paul estimates that Anderson was at least one mile back in the woods away from the nearest road.

Rescue workers put him on a backboard and carried him out to Whitley County EMS workers, who had found an alternative route to an area near the accident site, Paul said.

An Air Evac. Lifeteam emergency medical helicopter landed at the scene in an emergency landing zone, but didn’t fly Anderson out from there because he was to unstable, officials said.

Whitley County EMS transported him to Knox County Hospital in Barbourville. He was later flown out by emergency medical helicopter to Knoxville where he died.

Whitley County Emergency Management Director Danny Moses also assisted at the scene Monday, in addition to the two fire departments and Whitley County EMS.