MACHIAS – A 51-year-old Island Falls man appeared in Washington County Superior Court on Tuesday charged with manslaughter in connection with the death last year of a Maine Department of Transportation worker.
Kenneth Slauenwhite also was charged with elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, reckless conduct and driving to endanger in the death of DOT dump truck driver Jarrod Damon, 35, of Grand Lake Stream.
In addition, Slauenwhite was charged with elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, reckless conduct and driving to endanger in connection with the injuries that Gregory Scott, 43, of Danforth suffered as a passenger in the DOT truck.
Slauenwhite appeared in court Tuesday along with his attorney, Stephen Smith of Bangor.
First Assistant District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh on Tuesday explained that elevated aggravated assault is “acting with a state of mind showing depraved indifference to the value of human life [and] caus[ing] serious bodily injury with a dangerous weapon,” he said.
The accident happened on Sept. 24 on Route 6 in Kossuth. The Maine State Police handled the lengthy investigation.
According to a state police report, Slaunwhite, who was driving a 2001 Western Star tractor-trailer loaded with tree-length logs, was traveling east on Route 6 at a high rate of speed. “Slauenwhite lost control of the vehicle as he rounded a right-hand corner and the vehicle crossed the centerline of the road and into the westbound lane,” the report stated.
The load of logs spilled from the trailer and struck the DOT dump truck. The flatbed of the logging truck and the tree-size logs were spread across both lanes of Route 6, which was shut down for several hours for at least five miles in both directions of the accident scene. A Maine State Police reconstructionist was on-site for several hours.
Damon died at the scene. Scott was taken by ambulance to Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln, was treated for his injuries and later released.
Slauenwhite was treated at the hospital for minor injuries and later released.
The dump truck was demolished.
Cavanaugh said a status conference on the case would be held sometime in July. If there is no plea, the matter will go to the grand jury.
bdncalais@verizon.net
454-8228
Comments
comments for this post are closed