Worker killed at quarry in Oglethorpe County

A Georgia official says a quarry worker died after being crushed beneath eight tons of falling rock.

The Athens Banner-Herald reports 36-year-old Matthew Walter Kantala IV was killed Thursday at the Blue Sky Quarry in Oglethorpe County.

Mark Bridges, the county's deputy coroner, said Kantala was drilling a section of granite when a large chunk of rock broke away. Bridges said the worker fell 16 feet trying to get out of the way, and the falling rock landed on top of him.

Bridges estimated the falling slab of rock weighed 16,000 pounds.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death.