BETHEL – A Missouri man was hospitalized Thursday after being run over by a tractor-trailer loaded with boards at Hancock Lumber on Route 26.
Michael Allen Smith, 39, of Springfield, Mo., was flown to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Bethel police Officer Buddy Richard said.
A nursing supervisor could not give further information Thursday night.
Bethel Officer Phil Taylor said Smith was about to climb aboard the truck to leave the lumberyard when he thought he heard an air leak. Without telling the driver, Taylor said, Smith got under the left rear of the truck to check the tires. He was “under the trailer checking on something,” Taylor said, when the driver, Steven Allen Hamilton, 29, of North Glenstone, Mo., moved the truck forward to make room for a second truck coming through the entrance of the lumberyard, running over Smith’s legs.
Bethel police were notified of the accident at 11:08 a.m., Taylor said.
The truck is owned by Prime Inc., Taylor said. Prime Inc. is a trucking company based in Springfield, Mo., according to the company’s Web site.
The truck was full of trim boards to be taken to Missouri, according to Gregg Speed, Hancock Lumber’s director of safety. Speed said that Hamilton was being trained as a driver by Smith.
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