Officials: Canadian truck driver likely died before accident

NEWBURGH – A Canadian truck driver found dead in his cab after the tractor-trailer he was operating veered off Interstate 95 near Newburgh and rolled onto its side in the median Dec. 27 most likely died beforehand, a Maine State Police spokesman announced.

“It appears that last week’s death of a Canadian truck driver in Newburgh was likely from natural causes,” state police spokesman Stephen McCausland said in a press release Friday.

Harold Hoyt, 55, of Hoyt, New Brunswick, was discovered dead in the truck’s cab minutes after the vehicle came to rest near Exit 174 southbound, the investigating Maine State Police Trooper said after the accident.

A representative at the state medical examiner’s office said it would be months before the precise cause of death would be available.

Hoyt was driving for Brookville Trucking of Saint John, New Brunswick, and was carrying a load of paper to Florida.