Victim of skidder accident was standing on logging trail

TOWNSHIP 32 – Maine State Police have identified the man who was killed Thursday near the Stud Mill Road when he was run over by a skidder.

Vinal Haynes, 70, of Winn, an employee of H.C. Haynes, a logging contractor, was standing on a logging trail with another man when he was run over accidentally by a skidder driven by Corey Peters, 29, of Winn, Maine State Police Trooper David Barnard said Friday.

Peters, who is employed by Wayne Peters Inc., a logging company in Winn, had been driving back into the woods on a main skidder trail when he saw another skidder driving out on the same trail. There wasn’t room for both vehicles, so Peters pulled onto a side trail where Haynes and another man were walking.

The two men walking didn’t see Peters, who was looking over his left shoulder at the other skidder and didn’t see the men.

“By the time they noticed it, it was too late to get out of the way,” Barnard said.

The accident remained under investigation Friday by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Peters has not been charged in what Barnard said was a “tragic accident.”

Peters was taken to the hospital, where tests were done to determine whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Those results are not yet available.

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