MERCER – Three men were injured, one of them critically, when the pickup truck they were in crashed into a logging truck early Wednesday morning on Route 2.

Keith Gould, 24, of Hartland was initially taken to a Skowhegan hospital, but because of the extent of his injuries, he was airlifted to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor where he remained in critical condition Wednesday evening.

Gould had been pinned inside the pickup truck which struck a logging truck and then drove into a ditch.

The front end of the pickup truck was crushed and rescuers used extrication equipment to get him out of the heavily damaged pickup truck, according to the state police.

Two passengers in the pickup truck, Eric Lyons, 34, of Pittsfield and Merton Bowring, 40, of Hartland were treated at Reddington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan and later released in good condition, a hospital nursing supervisor said Wednesday.

The driver of the logging truck, Chad Haverlock, 25, of Greenbush was not injured.

Authorities have been unable to speak to Gould, so it wasn’t immediately clear what happened, although because of a lack of skid marks, investigators suspect that Gould may have fallen asleep at the wheel, State police Sgt. Aaron Hayden said Wednesday afternoon. Both Lyons and Bowring were asleep in the pickup truck at the time of the accident.

All three men are employed with Cianbro Corp. and had completed a night shift at a company project in Jay, Dorothy Hutchins, Cianbro public information officer, said Wednesday.

One of Gould’s relatives was working on a Cianbro project in the Gulf Coast, and the company flew the relative back to be with Gould at the hospital, she said.

Gould was heading east on Route 2 about 6:30 a.m. when he drifted into the oncoming lane and struck the tri-axle part of the trailer.

The accident occurred near the intersection of Beech Hill Road. A team of state police accident reconstructionists as well as investigators with the State Police Commercial Enforcement Division were at the scene.

Bangor Daily News reporter Sharon Kiley Mack contributed to the story.