A tree-felling accident killed one man and another was injured working on a paving project this afternoon in Glenville, police reported.
The lumberman, 55-year-old Mitchell Draina of Ballston Lake, was killed when he was struck by falling tree limbs on Scotch Bush Road in East Glenville.
Glenville Police Department spokesman Sgt. Stephen Janik said Draina, who owned Academy Lumber on Outlet Road in the town of Ballston, was clearing a lot at 70 Scotch Bush Road. Just after 2 p.m., Draina sent colleague Andrew Hayhurst up into a tree to cut it while he worked ropes from the ground.
When the tree cut was made, Janik said, it struck some other nearby trees, bringing the tops of those trees down as well. One of those struck Draina on his head.
Janik said it appeared that both men followed all proper procedures.
“It’s just a very unfortunate accident,” he said.
The East Glenville Fire Department was called to the scene. Draina was transported by Mohawk Ambulance to Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, where he was pronounced dead.
A short time later, fire departments were dispatched to Corporations Park, on Route 5 west of Scotia. There, Timothy Billington, 32, of St. Anna Lane in Scotia, was pinned by the heavy steel roller of a paving machine under which he had been working.
The 500-pound roller fell on him, but he survived and was listed in fair condition late Monday at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
Billington had been attempting to detach a front-end roller. Other workers managed to get it off the man before emergency responders arrived, Scotia Fire Chief Richard Kasko said.
At the time of the accident, Billington was working for Coppola & Sons, a Scotia contractor, off Capital Boulevard.
Kasko said Billington was conscious and alert when medical personnel arrived. He was airlifted from a nearby field off Mohawk Avenue to the Albany Medical Center Hospital.
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