AUBURN (NEWS CENTER Maine) — An Oxford man died Monday afternoon shortly after he was struck by a log that had fallen out of a cherry picker, police said.
Auburn police and fire units responded at about 2:20 p.m. to an Auburn sand pit on Gracelawn Road for reports of a logging accident where a man had been struck by a log.
Investigators, according to Auburn Police Chief Jason Moen, later determined that Ryan Kane, 42, of Oxford, was loading a logging truck — owned by Ryan Kane Trucking & Custom Sawing — with logs when a log fell out of the cherry picker and struck Thomas Staples, 57, who was standing near the truck.
Staples was taken to Central Maine Medical Center but later died of his injuries, police said.
Chief Moen said Staples was not an employee of the company, rather Kane's cousin, there to observe Kane working. Moen said this means the incident doesn't classify as a workplace fatality, therefore OSHA would not be part of the investigation, which remained ongoing.
