PARIS — Testimony in the civil trial regarding a fatal crash in West Paris in 2009 focused Thursday on how Richard Ray died and his children’s memories of him.

It was the fourth day an Oxford County Superior Court jury heard evidence in the case brought by Ray’s five children against Tricia Beretz, then 36, of Sommerville, Mass., and Midwest Price Co. of West Paris, owner of the tractor-trailer that swerved to avoid her and rolled over onto Ray’s pickup truck.

Ray, 60, of Naples, died at the scene on Route 26 on Nov. 23, 2009.

Ray’s four daughters and one son testified Thursday afternoon about their memories of their father. Rebecca Ray said he was her best friend, while Amy Knowles said she had a “complicated” relationship with her father that got better in the last years of his life.

Rebecca Ray said she and her father spoke several times a day, even though she lived in Bangor and he in Naples. She said a few days before he died, she visited him. Her husband’s friend had died that week in a car accident, and she told him she wasn’t ready for him to be gone.

Rebecca was her father’s emergency contact, and she received a call from a Maine State Police trooper saying there had been an accident. She didn’t learn what happened until two troopers came to her home that night to tell her.

The siblings described the frantic phone calls on the night of Richard Ray’s death as they obtained more information.

Daughter Lori Hamilton said Rebecca called her when she heard troopers were headed over to speak with her. Hamilton said her husband, a reserve officer for the Westbrook Police Department, made some calls and was able to find out what happened.

Hamilton said she watched her husband as his tone became more grim, before he relayed the news to her. When he asked, “’Which funeral home,’” she understood. “It was the worst night that ever happened,” she said.

Daughter Charlotte Miller, who didn’t meet her father until she was 24, was still getting to know him before he died, she said. She remembered “not being able to breathe” when she heard the news. “It’s not fair,” she said of his death. “I didn’t get enough time.”

Ray’s son, also named Richard, said he felt “numb” when he heard.

There were no cross-examinations of Ray’s children.

The jury also heard testimony Thursday morning that Ray died because the tractor-trailer loaded with wood chips truck rolled on top of him, not because of the initial impact. This followed several experts testifying earlier in the week that the truck rolled because of excessive speed.

According to investigators, the tractor-trailer was being driven north by Warren Dunning, then 41, of Dixfield. Beretz was headed south with Ray behind her. She fell asleep at the wheel, crossed into the northbound lane, woke up and started back into her lane. However, Dunning had swerved left to avoid a head-on collision with the car. Ray’s pickup crashed into the loaded chip truck, which overturned onto it, police said.

Fred Jordan, the deputy chief medical examiner for Maine who examined Ray’s body, said in court that he believed Ray survived the initial impact with the truck but was crushed when it flipped over onto his pickup.

Jordan testified that Ray seemed to have been injured in the initial crash, but the injuries that killed him included a broken breastbone and several broken ribs, which he said are consistent with crushing rather than a collision. Blunt force trauma was the official cause of death.

An injury to Ray’s head did not appear to be fatal, Jordan said. He said there was no evidence of a skull fracture.

Ray died very quickly, Jordan said. There was no evidence of smoke inhalation, suggesting he died before wood chips that spilled onto his truck caught fire.

Attorney Cathy Roberts, who is representing Midwest Price Co., pointed to Jordan’s deposition that said he couldn’t be completely sure that crushing killed Ray, without an autopsy.

Jordan said no autopsy was performed because he was able to determine, with reasonable certainty, that the initial impact didn’t kill Ray.

The trial will continue Tuesday, Oct. 11.

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