BANGOR, Maine — An accident involving a starting gate vehicle claimed the life of a Bangor Raceway employee on Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the company that owns the track.
The death occurred shortly after 2 p.m. on the oval racetrack at Bass Park, and the incident remains under investigation.
An internal investigation has been launched, and Hollywood Casino Hotel & Raceway officials are cooperating with Bangor police and fire personnel and Maine State Police, according to company spokesman Dan Cashman.
The name of the deceased will not be released until family members have been notified, he said.
No races were scheduled at Bangor Raceway until Monday. It has not yet been determined if those races will carry on as scheduled.
No details about how the accident transpired were released.
Hollywood Casino is working on bringing in grief counselors for employees who need them, according to Cashman.
Investigators from the Bangor Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division are working with investigators from the Maine Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Bangor police spokesman Sgt. Tim Cotton said.
Wednesday’s incident was not the first involving a starting gate vehicle at a Maine horse racing track. Harness racing starting gates are on moving vehicles to allow the horses pulling sulkies containing drivers to get a running start. When the starting gate vehicle — with racers running behind it — reaches the official starting line, the gates swing closed and the vehicle speeds up and pulls out of the horses’ way.
In September 2010, five harness racing fans were injured when a starting gate mounted on a moving pickup struck them as they stood alongside the track at the Windsor State Fair.
Three of the spectators were taken to an Augusta hospital for treatment of injuries and the other two were treated at the track, according to published reports.
The accident happened when the gate reportedly did not retract at the starting line as intended.
The Bangor track’s last widely reported injury involving harness racing occurred in 2008 when a driver from Farmington broke his back when he was catapulted from his sulky during a qualifying race at Bangor Raceway.
Michael Cushing, then 39, had surgery on his spine after landing on his tailbone.
Cushing went on to sue the track, owned by Hollywood Casino and the city of Bangor in 2010, claiming that track conditions were to blame.
A Franklin County jury — which was asked to decide whether the track conditions caused the accident or if it was simply the result of a young horse who broke stride and fell — found the latter.