YARMOUTH — A veteran construction foreman was killed when a coworker backed over him with a street sweeper at a construction site Friday, police said.
Paul D. Haley, 57, of Farmington was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. He was a veteran employee of Reed & Reed, a Woolwich-based construction firm, said John Cooney, vice president of finance and development for the company.
Police and rescue workers were called to the scene about 11:45 a.m. Flaggers had been directing traffic around the street sweeper, which was driven by Richard S. Mason, 30, of South Paris, police said. The crew was cleaning a section of road on Main Street under the Route 1 bridge in preparation for paving, said Yarmouth Police Chief Daniel Gallant.
Detective Mathew Yeaton of the Falmouth Police Department marks a section of Main Street in Yarmouth during reconstruction of an accident in which a construction worker was killed by a street sweeper. Jill Brady/Staff Photographer
Investigators are working to reconstruct the fatal incident to learn what happened, but Gallant said alcohol and speed are not believed to be factors at this time.
Reed & Reed is the general contractor for the road work, part of a project to replace the Route 1 bridge over Main Street, which has been under construction since 2017 and is slated to be complete next month.
“We are very sad to announce that today one of our employees lost his life in an accident on a construction site in Yarmouth,” the company’s statement said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with our employee and his family. Our immediate priority was to secure the scene of the accident and ensure the safety of all the persons on the site. It is too soon to know the cause of this accident, and we will be conducting our own internal investigation and fully cooperating with state and federal authorities in order to understand what happened.”
Yarmouth police Chief Daniel Gallant said the victim of Friday’s fatality was on foot before the incident and was pronounced dead at the scene. Jill Brady/Staff Photographer
Haley was on foot before the incident, Gallant said.
A check of Mason’s driving record shows he has multiple driving infractions stretching to 2009, including for speeding, illegal attachment of plates, failure to produce insurance, operating an unregistered motor vehicle and failure to display a valid inspection sticker. A check by police on Friday showed that Mason holds a valid license, police said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been notified, and the driver of the street sweeper was tested for drugs and alcohol, as is standard for all drivers involved in fatal motor vehicle incidents.
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