One person is dead in Franklin County after a serious accident involving a tractor-trailer, a sedan and a pickup truck.
It happened on U. . Route 2 Thursday afternoon. Route 2 is shut down from the Route 17 intersection in Dixfield to Morrison Hill Road in Carthage.
Investigators say a person in the sedan was dead at the scene. Four people in the pickup truck were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured.
Sheriff’s deputies and rescue personnel were credited with saving the life of a young girl after they lifted her mother’s wrecked van from atop her after a two-vehicle crash Sunday night.
Hannah Clifford, 9, of Brooks was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor with serious injuries after the van she was riding in with her mother and three siblings was hit broadside by a pickup truck that apparently ran a stop sign.
According to news reports, the accident occurred at 7:58 p.m. at the intersection of Route 139 and Bog Road. A pickup truck driven by John Pellitier, 21, of Unity was reported to have ran the Bog Road stop sign and struck the passenger side of a van driven by Andrea Clifford, 40, of Brooks.
The parents of a man who suffered extensive injuries in a car crash are suing the bars that served him alcohol, the Kennebec Journal reported on August 22nd. On the night of January 31, 2008, Paul D. Hinerman went drinking with a friend at Mainely Brews & Tavern, the Midnight Blues Club and Cellar Door, and The Chez. According to reports, Waterville police Officer Matthew McNutt saw the pickup shortly after midnight as Hinerman raced past the station on Front Street. Moments later, the vehicle crashed at Front Street and College Avenue, rolled over and trapped Hinerman underneath.
As a result of his injuries, Hinerman, 30, who had been a high school varsity athlete, was forced to spend months in hospitals and rehabilitation centers. According to the lawsuit, he now “has the mental capacity of a child with nearly complete short-term memory loss, speech impairment and loss of mobility and function.”sHe was discharged from the hospital in May 2008 with medical bills in excess of $400,000, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit charges the bars with recklessness in serving Hinerman, “given his visible and observable intoxication and in conscious disregard of the obvious and substantial risk that serving liquor would cause physical harm.”sNot surprisingly, the bars have responded that in fact their serving practices are responsible and it is unfair for them to be held liable for a customer’s own recklessness.
Michael Lewis of Bass Harbor was killed in the crash that occurred near the Rumill Road intersection. Lewis was driving a pickup truck that crashed head-on with another pick-up truck. The other truck was operated by Dacota Dow, 19, of Bar Harbor. Authorities reported that the two vehicles collided in the center of the road.
Two passengers in Lewis’ vehicle, Erin Hanley, a teenager from Tremont, and her brother Patrick, 10, were taken by ambulance to MDI Hospital in Bar Harbor with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Troopers from the Maine State Police remained on the scene into the evening investigating the accident.
Jack Vincent, a 12-year-old Scarborough boy who was hit by a pickup truck last week is reportedly improving, although it is still unknown what permanent limitations he will have from his injuries.
York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette acknowledged that the bridge is too narrow to accommodate cars and pedestrians at the same time. The driver is claiming that he didn’t have enough time to react before hitting Vincent.
In our opinion, an investigation into this matter should carefully consider the truck driver’s speed and knowledge of the children’s use of the bridge, and should analyze whether law enforcement officials should have done more to prevent this accident from occurring. In our opinion, there should also be additional investigation whether the State failed to do enough to accommodate the use of the bridge by pedestrians and children.
The Kennebec Couty Sheriff’s Department reported that the results of the blood test conducted on Joseph Rouleau, 35, of Fayette, following the crash that claimed the life of 21-year-old Corrie Lazar showed Rouleau had a blood-alcohol content of 0.23, almost three times the legal limit. Charges will likely be filed against Mr. Rouleau.
In this type of situation, it is highly likely that it will be established that Mr. Rouleau’s level of intoxication prevented him from seeing Lazar in the road or, if he did see her, impaired his reaction time to the point where he was not able to avoid an otherwise avoidable collision with the pedestrian.
A rescue vehicle collided head-on with a truck causing injuries to the operator of the truck and his passenger.
Newport Rescue had been dispatched to a restaurant on Route 2, Angler’s Restaurant. As the vehicle approached the Ridge Road intersection, a vehicle reportedly slowed causing a truck behind it operated by Chistopher Hajek to swerve into the path of the rescue vehicle.
Hajek suffered leg injuries and was transported to Sebasticook Valley Hospital, then was moved to Eastern Maine Medical Center.
A 12-year-old boy was hospitalized in serious condition when a pickup truck hit him on the Salmon Falls Bridge. The boy, according to news accounts, was getting ready to jump off the bridge. The bridge is very well known in the area as a place where children come in the summer for the excitement of leaping from a height of over 20 feet into the water. The town has issued citations, but has not created any type of obstruction to prevent children from jumping from the bridge.
An investigation into this matter will likely occur to determine whether the driver of the truck was exercising adequate caution. One issue that will need to be addressed is whether the driver knew the area was frequented by children and, if so, whether he was exercising extra caution. Maine law requires that if a driver is aware that children are playing in an area near a road he exercise reasonable caution by, among other things, reducing his speed and/or keeping a vigilant lookout for children. This situation is similar to drivers seeing children riding bicycles along a road. Under these circumstances, reasonable care would require the driver to proceed at reduced speeds that would permit the driver to avoid a collision if the child were to accidentally swerve out into the road.
Another issue that will likely be investigated is whether the State did enough to prevent children from being injured by what was clearly known to be a potentially dangerous attraction. Maine law requires owners of property to exercise reasonable care to prevent harm to children by having something on the property that would attract the children and cause potentially serious injuries. Although this particular bridge was used for generations as a popular place to jump, it would need to be determined whether modifications to the bridge design could have enabled this past-time to occur while, at the same time, reducing the possibility of children being hit by oncoming vehicles.
Maine Injury Lawyer Blog