Portland car accident

May 31, 2016

Maine Reviewing Bridge Safety Following Car Accident

A Windham woman and her 12-year-old son were seriously injured last month in a Maine car accident in which their vehicle tore through a guardrail on Route 1 in Bath and plunged 30-feet off a two-lane bridge, before landing upside down on a pickup truck. The Portland Press Herald reported the bridge from which the car fell had numerous missing or broken rail bolts. Structurally, it was designed to prevent exactly this sort of thing. But it did not, and those deficiencies may have been a factor.

The horrific crash now has officials with the Maine Department of Transportation launching an investigation into more than a dozen bridges across the state that may have structural inadequacies or safety concerns.

The 37-year-old woman and her 12-year-old son had to be extricated from the mangled mass of metal by firefighters and were then transported via ambulance to the Maine Medical Center in Portland with serious injuries. Fortunately, the injuries they suffered were not expected to be life-threatening. Continue reading

May 11, 2016

Maine Car Accident Kills Sanford Baby Girl on Wells Turnpike

by Peter Thompson & Associates

A baby girl was killed in a Maine car accident on the state turnpike in Wells. Four other people were injured in the crash, according to The Portland Press Herald.

It was about 4 p.m. Heavy rains poured onto the roadway. A 22-year-old woman was at the wheel. The 11-month-old baby girl was in the back seat.

The driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle, slammed into guardrails and then came to rest along the tree line on the southbound side of the turnpike. The girl’s mother, 21, had been in the front passenger seat of the car. She and the driver were transported to the Maine Medical Center in Portland with serious injuries.

Two other children in the vehicle – a 3-year-old girl and a 4-month-old boy – survived with minor injuries. Those two, identified as the offspring of the driver, had been buckled into proper child safety harnesses. The 11-month-old girl had also been buckled into a child safety seat in the back. However, she nonetheless suffered fatal head injuries. She was transported to a local hospital, where she died of her injuries. Continue reading

September 29, 2015

Triple Fatal Maine Auto Accident Puzzles Investigators

by Peter Thompson & Associates

The driver was a 33-year-old mother-of-two from Dayton with a bad traffic history and a few criminal charges on her record. The front seat passenger was a 45-year-old carpenter and father-of-four. The back seat passenger was a 20-year-old who liked hanging out at local skate parks and doing tricks on his BMX bike.

It’s not clear what they were all out doing together at 11 p.m. the night they all died in a crash on Gould Road in Dayton, about a half hour southwest of Portland. Family members would later say they had never heard of the others involved. Investigators did learn they were all Facebook friends, but it’s still not apparent what their connection was or why they were out together.

What they do know is this: Not one of them had a valid driver’s license. All were suspended. What’s more, someone in the car was drinking. Troopers who responded to the scene could smell it. However, it’s unclear at this point whether the driver was impaired, and investigators won’t know for sure until the toxicology reports come back. That’s when they’ll be able to say whether alcohol played a role in the crash, too. Investigators have also surmised the driver was speeding, as evidenced by the fact she was not able to safely negotiate the turn, which she should have been able to do had she been traveling the speed limit, which is 45 mph. Continue reading

August 15, 2015

Maine’s High Accident Risk Due to Construction, Hazards and Road Condition, Report Says

by Peter Thompson & Associates

Maine drivers have to contend with a higher-than-average number of traffic accidents, construction and roadway hazards.

That’s according to the latest report from Waze, a service purchased by Google two years ago.

It works like this: Drivers download the application and then can send and receive warnings about roadway obstacles, such as traffic jams, police units, heavy traffic and accidents. Users get points for finding roadway obstructions and warning others behind them. Continue reading