ALFRED — The prosecutor said the failure of a Lebanon general contracting firm and its president to maintain the dump truck that struck and killed a Sanford teenager two years ago is a crime.

The boy, 15-year-old Corey Cabana, died in a hospital on July 13, 2012 after he was struck while crossing Route 202 ”“ Lebanon Street ”“ in Sanford, on a skateboard in a crosswalk. The truck driver, Mark Stuart, president of Stuart, Torno and Stuart, is on trial at York County Superior Court for manslaughter, as is the company.

“This is not an accident,” said Assistant District Attorney Thad West in opening arguments Tuesday. “It was inevitable.”

Peter DeTroy, the attorney for Stuart, said Cabana’s death is a difficult and tragic matter.

“This is a tragedy. It is a loss for everybody, for the Cabana family and everyone involved,” DeTroy told York County Superior Court Justice John O’Neil.

Stuart and the company waived their right to a jury trial, which means the case will be decided by the judge.

DeTroy said witnesses would testify that Cabana came down Nason Street on a skateboard, “barely losing speed,” and then shot across the street.

“He never looked right or left,” DeTroy said. “He had earbuds and a hat on.”

DeTroy said Stuart, his client, was driving 15 to 20 miles per hour down Lebanon Street toward Sanford’s Main Street. DeTroy said Stuart was tapping the brakes and slowing down. The defense attorney said a witness would testify that they heard Stuart yelling, “Stop, stop, no, no, get out of the way.”

West, the prosecutor, said the truck Stuart was driving should never have been on the road, and that there were nine violations found during an examination after the crash that put the truck out of service.

He said the truck was “so unsafe” that tests performed by Maine State Police following the crash showed it “took a football field” to stop at 30 mph.

“But he loaded it with thousands of pounds (of crushed stone), and drove it off the lot,” said West of Stuart.

West said Cabana was “admittedly” on a skateboard in a crosswalk when the crash took place, but stressed Stuart’s responsibilities.

“He knew (the truck) was bad,” said West of Stuart. “He had been warned by former employees.”

West said the truck’s inspection had expired in December 2011, six months before the crash.

“What if that truck had been maintained?” West asked. “Corey would have been alive.”

Both Cabana’s family and Stuart family members sat quietly in the courtroom. Corey’s mother, Patty Cabana, clutched a portrait of her son, who would have been a junior this year at Sanford High School.

DeTroy said the truck was one that was used to plow snow in the winter, but was not regularly used during the summer. He estimated it had made three or four short trips before the crash ”“ one of them in June by another member of the family firm. DeTroy said the truck is typically checked and maintained in the fall to prepare for the winter plowing season.

DeTroy said the truck had issues, but noted that when there are two contributing causes, “you have to be able to say one (of them) was the cause, and you can’t, in this case.”

West called Maine State Police Motor Carrier Inspector Dan Russell as his first witness on Tuesday, one of several witnesses expected to take the stand as the state presents its case. Russell testified about the condition of the brakes.

During the afternoon session, Tom Pickett, an inspector with Maine State Police commercial vehicle enforcement division, testified about the tests he took part in during the state police examination of the truck. Pickett, a former trucker, said he was instructed to drive 30 mph and apply the trucks’ brakes. On the first trip, he said it took 260 feet to stop; 279 feet on the second trip; 290 feet on the third; 309 feet on the fourth; and 361 feet on the fifth, when he used only the emergency brake. He testified that it appeared the truck had very little braking power.

Devin Deane, who is assisting DeTroy in the case, pointed out that the truck had been traveling about 20 mph when it hit the boy, not 30 mph, the speed used in the test.

In response to a question by the defense counsel, Pickett said heat created by repeated use of the brakes could mean longer stopping lengths.

Later Tuesday, Sanford Police Officer Scott Foisy was scheduled to take the stand.

The trial is continuing at York County Superior Court today.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.