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Reported by WABI-TV5 News Desk

June 23rd 2010

Police have determined who was driving the vehicle that was involved in a fatal accident in Enfield last week. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department says a car driven by 38-year old Leanna Lancaster went off Route 2 last Tuesday night. Lancaster’s passengers, 24-year old Kourtney Grindle Murray and 18-year old Christina Pegg, both of Greenbush, were pronounced dead at the scene. A police officer driving by discovered the crash just before 9:30. Sgt. Scott Young says it appears the car was heading south when it strayed into the northbound lane and crashed into a tree. Lancaster, also of Greenbush, was airlifted to Eastern Maine Medical Center. Police are still investigatiing the cause of the accident.

Reported by Bangor Daily News Staff

WARREN, Maine — Three people were injured, one critically, after a two-car accident Tuesday, according to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

At about 4:30 p.m. Howard Taggart, 58, was driving his 2000 Chevy Blazer north on Route 1 in Warren near Loons Cry Campground, when he drifted into oncoming traffic. A black 2000 Mazda MPV operated by Jess Brann, 34, was hit head on. Passengers in the Blazer were sisters Allyson Taggert, 34, and Holly Anderson, 31, according to the Sheriff’s Office. No hometowns were given for any of the victims.

Three Belfast Area High School students were injured and taken to the hospital Friday night after their car struck a tree.

The crash occurred at around 8:15 p.m. on Back Searsport Road when the 2002 Daewoo in which the three male students were riding left the road for unknown reasons and hit the tree, Sgt. Walter Corey with the Belfast Police Department said Saturday.

The names of the three victims were not released because they are all under age 18.

A two-car crash early Saturday morning in Maine took the life of one Brown graduate student, Tam Ngoc Tran GS, and injured another, President Ruth Simmons announced in a campus-wide e-mail Sunday morning. Tran, 27, one of two passengers in a car driven by Heather Lee GS, was airlifted from the scene to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where she died at 5:55 p.m. Saturday, according to Maine State Police Sergeant Timothy Varney. The other passenger, Cinthya Nathalie Felix Perez, 26, died at the scene.

At 1:20 a.m. Saturday, a Ford pick-up truck driven by Jon Dow, 23, of Hampden, Maine, crossed the center line of Maine’s Route 3 and struck the vehicle driven by Lee, 28, according to Varney. Dow and Lee also sustained injuries.

The crash remains under investigation and is being reconstructed by the local sheriff’s department.

December 28, 2009: Around quarter of nine Monday night, a Ford Explorer driving north on Norridgewock Road lost contol and veered into the other lane. A Ford F-250 struck the side of the vehicle, killing Jamie Lounsbury of Fairfield. Lounsbury was a passenger in the vehicle. The male driver was hospitalized. No other names are being released at this time. Two people in the truck, a 32-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were hospitalized.

This accident is under investigation. As personal injury specialists, Peter Thompson & Associates has investigated hundreds of accidents. In almost all cases, the primary and secondary causes of collisions are disputed, resulting in the need for a comprehensive accident reconstruction. While police will often conduct an accident reconstruction, we find it frequently necessary to conduct more detailed investigations of accident scenes to determine who was at fault. Because important evidence that will be necessary to provide the most accurate investigation is often lost as time passes, it is critical that a comprehensive accident reconstruction occur as soon as possible and that all witnesses to the accident are interviewed to preserve their recollections.

Jeremiah Baker was was driving Southbound on Route 27, but, according to police reports, he was driving in the wrong lane. Police say he drove straight into the side of Jessica Bourget’s Ford Explorer. The collision ejected Baker from his vehicle. The crash crushed Bourget’s ankle and broke her leg. She was taken to Maine General Memorial Hospital in Augusta where she was treated an released.

It is unclear at this time why Mr. Baker was driving in the wrong lane. At Peter Thompson & Associates, we have investigated thousands of car crashes utilizing the very best experts in the field. It will be critical to conduct a timely investigation to preserve evidence at the accident scene and to record witness recollections of the events. Often skid marks and debris left from the vehicles will indicate not only the speed of the vehicles prior to impact, but also the direction the vehicles were headed relative to each other.

November 13, 2009: A crash claimed the lives of three people Friday afternoon when a pickup truck collided head-on with a pulp truck and caught fire.

Because there is likely to be a dispute over how the accident occurred, it will be critical to conduct a detailed and thorough accident reconstruction and interview any witnesses, including the driver at the truck who also sustained injuries. At Peter Thompson & Associates, we utilize the very best accident reconstructionists to determine how and why accidents occurred. Field analysis of skid marks immediately prior to the collision is an excellent indicator of the positioning of the vehicles in the road and the speed of the vehicles prior to impact. The nature and extent of the damage to the vehicles is also an excellent way to determine speed, as well as the position of the vehicles in the roadway and in relation to each other at the point of impact. Because critical evidence necessary to perform such an investigation is often lost as time passes, it will be necessary in this case to begin the investigatory process as soon as possible.

We noted in previous blog entries the tragic death of Michael Lewis on Route 102 in Tremont. Lisa Skiff Renault has been joined by more than 750 others urging local teen drivers to slow down and act responsibly behind the wheel.

Ms. Skiff Renault spoke about the Facebook cause page and her efforts to start a group to promote safe driving among MDI High School students on Monday afternoon, shortly after she returned from Mr. Lewis’ funeral at the Tremont Community Center.

“I started this because I’m tired of going to these funerals,” she said.

Yesterday we reported on a fatal accident involving a vehicle operated by Michael Lewis and another vehicle operated by Dacota Dow. A State investigation is underway.

The Bangor Daily News reported that the impacted occurred near the center of the road. However, information obtained by the Ellsworth American indicates that was not the case. “The impact occurred well into Lewis’ lane; close to the ditch,” Mr. McCausland, the State Police spokesman said. “Lewis was making evasive maneuvers to avoid the collision.”

Police are still conducting interviews. An accident reconstruction specialist from the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office is involved in the case, police said.