FARMINGTON – A Massachusetts lumber dealer testified at his trial Tuesday that he couldn’t explain how he didn’t know he’d lost a load of 17-foot beams on Route 27 last year that resulted in the death of a New Portland driver.

Domingos Medeiros, 49, of Fall River, is being tried before Franklin County Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy on a felony charge of leaving the scene of a personal injury or death accident.

Some of the more than one ton of beams that fell from Medeiros’ trailer in New Vineyard on Jan. 16, 2008, went into a car driven by Stephen McKenney, 55, killing him, police said. Another driver, Katherine Jones of Camden, and her daughter, were injured slightly when wood hit the front of their vehicle, which was traveling behind McKenney’s, according to police.

Medeiros testified he couldn’t understand how the load came off and how he didn’t hear it. He said he loaded and secured the 6- by 12-inch beams with straps and checked the load multiple times before leaving a job site in Kingfield to return to his business, Hardpine Inc., in Fall River.

“The only explanation was that it fell in snow,” he said.

He said he was driving about 40 mph and not playing the radio or talking.

Jones testified that she and her daughter were traveling to Sugarloaf the night of the accident, with a car ahead of her and what she thought was a truck coming toward her in the opposite lane.

Next, she said, a beam came across her windshield.

Massachusetts truck driver Lonnie Blanchard testified he was hauling shavings from Quebec to Massachusetts when two trucks traveling an estimated 50 to 60 mph caught his attention just south of Kingfield. One was hauling a trailer loaded with wood, and the straps looped over it appeared to be loose, he said.

He eventually came onto a piece of wood in the road and then saw a vehicle destroyed in the opposite lane. He didn’t see the two trucks again until he reached the stop sign where Route 27 connects with Route 4, he said.

State Trooper Aaron Turcotte, a specialist in crash reconstruction, told the court he found marks in the road where beams struck the pavement at the scene south of Basin Road. He also located a strap on the road.

Detective Thomas White and Cpl. Stephen Charles of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department testified about their trip to Fall River to see the F550 Ford truck and trailer the day after the accident and find Medeiros, who eventually turned himself in to local police on Jan. 23.

Medeiros said site construction manager Timothy Harvey invited Medeiros and his wife, Anita, to dinner at the Log Cabin Restaurant in Farmington after the beams were loaded and he followed Harvey’s truck south. When they reached the restaurant, they realized the load was gone.

Harvey testified Medeiros immediately started back up Route 27 to look for the wood. Once they arrived south of the accident scene, they were advised they couldn’t get near, he said, and Medeiros didn’t push to see police because they would be busy.

Harvey said Medeiros was panicked at the scene and said he needed time to think.

Medeiros said he was sure the wood was not involved in the accident.

“A ton of lumber … on a dark road in the middle of winter … do you believe they (the police) would have treated it as a nuisance?” prosecutor Andrews asked

After learning the next morning that the beams were involved, Medeiros said he wanted to return to Maine with the truck and meet with police but was advised not to by his lawyer in Massachusetts.

“It was the right thing to do and I wanted to … if I hadn’t followed my attorney’s advice I wouldn’t be here today,” he said.

Closing arguments will be presented at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, when the trial convenes.