NEW SHARON – A St. Albans man is taking the winter off from logging after he was critically injured in August when he was caught between a load of wood he hauled out of the woods and his skidder.

Jeff Harris of New Sharon heard Wayne Knight’s calls for help after he had been pinned for 3 ½ hours.

“I’m doing great,” Knight, 65, said. “I’ve got to watch the cold. I can’t get my legs wet.

He is getting impatient and would like to get back to the job he has been doing since he was 20.

But a son is threatening to impound his skidder if he tries to log this winter.

Knight had gotten off his skidder Aug. 25, after hauling out a twitch of wood to a log yard off Jersey Avenue, a dead-end road located off Industry Road.

He set his brake but somehow the skidder rolled back.

Everything he needed to free himself was out of reach.

Every 15 minutes, he said, he called out for help.

Harris was sitting in his own truck, just up the road at about 5 p.m., waiting to show a piece of property. He heard someone yelling but didn’t think anything of it until he heard it a second time and investigated. He found Knight.

“If the guy hadn’t found me I figured I would be dead in an hour,” Knight said.

He credits Harris, New Sharon firefighters and medical crews for saving his life.

When he arrived by helicopter at a Lewiston hospital, he was rushed to the operating room where they cut open his legs to relieve the pressure. His legs were full of fluid and kept swelling.

“I was lucky,” he said. “I am very thankful to be alive.”

Copy the Story Link