SMITHS STATION, Ala. (WRBL) – A Lee County man has died in what appears to be a tragic accident while cutting down trees on his property. 

Lee County Coroner Bill Harris tells News 3 he was called to a Smiths Station home along Lee Road 240 Thursday afternoon. Harris says it appears the man was cutting down trees with a chainsaw when he suffered severe trauma and passed away at the scene. Later Thursday night, Bill Harris released this statement:

A 58-year-old Smiths Station man was killed Thursday afternoon on some property in the 7400 block of Lee Road 240. Jeffery Allen Ward was working on his property when he apparently was struck in the head by a tree or large tree limb he was cutting down. Ward had been clearing some trees on his property and when he did not return to the house at lunch or shortly after family and friends initiated a search and located him under some branches in a wooded area on the property. It appears he suffered a major head injury and was killed instantly. Lee County Coroner Bill Harris pronounced Ward dead at the scene. Ward’s body has been taken to the Alabama Dept. of Forensic Sciences medical examiner’s office in Montgomery for a postmortem exam. It appears to be an accident and no foul play is involved. The incident remains under investigation by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Lee County Coroner’s Office.