UPDATE | One dead in tractor-trailer incident

AUSTINTOWN — Township police report one person died after being run over by a tractor-trailer this morning at the Pilot Travel Center along North Canfield Niles Road.

The incident happened just before 9:30 a.m. The Mahoning County coroner was informed about 20 minutes later, according to police.

Austintown Capt. Bryan Kloss said the preliminary investigation indicates the victim — a Michigan truck driver whose name has not yet been released by the coroner’s office — walked from his truck past a row of parked tractor-trailer trucks and into the path of the moving truck, driven by a Canadian driver.

There were no witnesses to that incident, but a person at the scene told police they “heard someone screaming, looked out and saw the victim being rolled through the trailer wheels,” Kloss said.

The driver, whom police believe was not speeding through the parking lot, said he “felt a bump,” but didn’t see the victim until it was too late.

“He’s pretty shook,” Kloss said.

The driver’s trucking company ordered him not to give a written statement to police, until the company’s attorneys could get involved. The man did agree to provide a urine sample for a toxicology test, Kloss noted.

The coroner’s office may release the victim’s identity today.