A Milledgeville man lost his life early Tuesday morning when his vehicle crashed into a log truck, according to Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills.
Micky Lee Bartlett, 51, had already died when emergency workers arrived at the scene of the crash; Coroner Hollis Harrison pronounced him dead at 7:15 a.m.
Sills said Bartlett, driving a 2015 Toyota Highlander, was traveling northbound on U.S. Hwy. 441. As his vehicle came to the intersection of Old Milledgeville Road and U.S. 441, a log truck also going northbound on Hwy. 441 was about to turn onto Old Milledgeville Road. The log truck, owned by Josey Timber LLC in Gray, was being driven by Willie Lee Murphy, 72, of Macon.
For unknown reasons that were still being investigated Tuesday at the newspaper’s press time, Bartlett’s Highlander collided into the back of the log truck, which Sills described as being “fully loaded with stacked logs.” The logs forcefully pushed the top off the body of the SUV, Sills said.
Murphy had complaints of severe neck pain and was taken by ambulance to Putnam General Hospital. The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the fatality.