SKOWHEGAN — An Oakland man was killed Monday morning when his fully loaded logging truck rolled over him and crashed into the Pizza Hut restaurant about five minutes before it was scheduled to open for the day.
The accident killed Michael Morin, 60, owner of Mike Morin Tree-Length Firewood.
Additional Photos
There were no customers in the Madison Avenue restaurant at the time of the crash.
Police don’t yet know why the truck started moving after Morin got out of it, said Skowhegan Police Chief Ted Blais.
Damon Ward, the morning cook who opened the restaurant Monday, said he arrived for work about 8:30 a.m. to get ready for the day.
“Five minutes before we opened — it was about 10:55 this morning — I heard a crash, went up front to check and the truck was through my front door,” Ward said. “The driver was underneath the truck. He was out of his truck. I heard the driver call out, saying, âI need help.’ So I ran to go get help.”
Ward, of Madison, said he took off his apron and jacket to place under Morin’s head to make sure Morin’s head was level and told his fellow employees to call 911.
Blais, the police chief, said it appeared that the 30-foot-long logging truck, with dozens of logs, had been parked two car rows from the front of the building and that Morin left the truck to go into the restaurant for lunch.
The truck rolled, the right front wheel running over Morin, before it crashed into the main entrance of the restaurant, Blais said.
“He shuts the truck off, gets out, walks toward the building to have lunch and then his truck hits him and crashes right into the building,” Blais said. “The truck went right into the building.”
Blais said Morin was taken by ambulance to Redington-Fairview General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Doug Harlow can be contacted at 621-2367 or at:dharlow@centralmaine.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.