58-year-old cutting tree limbs found dead under huge branch, SC officials say
A 58-year-old man was cutting tree limbs before he was found dead under a massive branch, South Carolina officials said.
The man was outside a home when tragedy struck Friday, May 9, the Anderson County Office of the Coroner wrote in a news release and in an email to McClatchy News.
The coroner’s office said it was called at about 2 p.m. to Iva, a roughly 45-mile drive southwest from Greenville. At the scene, first responders lifted a large branch off of the man and pronounced him dead.
The man was identified as Alan Leland Smith of Iva. He is remembered as a grandfather who enjoyed singing at his church and loved cheering on his favorite football teams, according to an obituary on the McDougald Funeral Home website.
Smith died while he was working on a family farm that he had inherited, according to the obituary and WYFF.
“The investigation indicates the victim was apparently cutting some small tree limbs that had fallen to the ground from a large tree,” the coroner’s office wrote. “And while he was cutting the small limbs, a large limb apparently broke away from the top of the tree and fell striking the victim. The victim sustained traumatic injuries secondary to blunt force trauma.”
The tree limb that hit Smith was about 12 feet long and 2 feet wide, Chief Deputy Coroner Don McCown told WYFF. While the coroner’s office told McClatchy News it didn’t have the dimensions of the branch, public information officer Alyssa H. Whitfield said “it was large enough that one person could not move it alone.”
Smith’s death was ruled accidental and remained under investigation as of May 9.
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 10:48 AM with the headline "58-year-old cutting tree limbs found dead under huge branch, SC officials say."
