Update: Body recovered after fatal logging truck crash in The Forks

The 1994 Kenworth tractor-trailer that Pierre Alexander Drolet, 35, of Saint-Zacharie, Quebec, was driving when he crashed Thursday morning into Martin Pond in The Forks. Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office says rescue workers recovered a body on Friday believed to be that of Drolet. Officials say they believe Drolet was alone inside the truck when the crash occurred. Somerset County Sheriff’s Office photo

THE FORKS — A body was recovered Friday from the site of a tractor-trailer crash that killed the driver of a logging truck, authorities confirmed.

Although the body’s identity has yet to be confirmed, Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office said it is believed to be that of Pierre Alexander Drolet, 35, of Saint-Zacharie, Quebec, the driver killed in Thursday’s crash.

“We did recover the body of a male from the scene, from the water,” Mitchell said Friday. “It’s presumed to be the driver, but an autopsy will be performed on him at a later time.”

The body was recovered from Martin Pond at around 1:30 p.m. after an “all-day, all-night” search effort, according to Mitchell, with divers called in from the Maine State Police and a remote-control submersible deployed by the Maine Warden Service.

Recovery efforts were complicated by cold temperatures, ice on the pond, and fuel that had leaked into the water, Mitchell said.

“Diesel fuel was spilled into the water, which was making it really difficult to see for both the divers and the lens of the camera on this underwater device,” Mitchell said. “They knew they had to come back during daylight hours in the morning.”

Police say Drolet was killed after his tractor-trailer veered off U.S. Route 201 and into a pond at around 4 a.m. Thursday. They believe Drolet was alone inside the truck when the crash occurred.

While Mitchell said the cause of the crash is still under investigation, he suspected it was caused by the winter storm that swept through central Maine on Wednesday night.

The area had received between 8 to 10 inches of snow by Thursday morning, and winds were gusting to 40 mph, according to Jerry Combs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray.

Mitchell said the body was located after a Maine Department of Environmental Protection crew removed both the gasoline and many of the logs carried by the truck from the pond.