Palmyra man killed in single-car crash
Fatal accident

Palmyra man killed in single-car crash


BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER COUSINS
Pittsfield firefighters look on as a state trooper tries to reconstruct what happened this morning to cause a crash that killed Jeffrey Guilford, 56, of Palmyra.

PITTSFIELD, Maine- — A Palmyra man died on his way home from work Tuesday morning when the car he was driving went off the road, struck a tree and tumbled to a stop in a cow field on Route 2.

Jeffrey Guilford, 56, who was working third shift at the Verso paper mill in Jay early Tuesday, died as rescuers tried to free him from the wreckage, according to Pittsfield Police Chief Steven Emery. A LifeFlight helicopter went to the scene, a cow pasture on Route 2 less than a mile from the Pittsfield-Palmyra town line, but it wasn’t quick enough.

“It was too late when they got here,” said Emery.

Guilford, who died just a couple miles from his 86 Raymond Road home, left behind a wife and at least one daughter, age 12, said Emery, who delivered the news to Guilford’s wife shortly after the crash.

Guilford’s late-model Kia Santa Fe was traveling east at about 7:55 a.m. when the crash happened. The car’s tire tracks could be seen in the roadside grass leading through a fence and into a large tree. The car flipped onto its side and came to rest about 30 feet from the tree. There was no visible evidence that Guilford tried to brake. A crash reconstructionist from the Maine State Police was at the accident scene at about 9:30 a.m. trying to determine what happened.

The field contains numerous cows, which fled to another part of the pasture when the helicopter arrived, Emery said.

There were no witnesses to the crash, he said.

ccousins@bangordailynews.net

207-938-3315

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Comments
11 comments on this item

The field contains numerous cows, which fled to another part of the pasture when the helicopter arrived, Emery said. Why the hell do I care about this?

know it all, They had to write that final sentence because some PETA people are reading this and they would be more concerned about the welfare of the cows in the pasture. Now we all know the cows are safe! However, the BDN did not tell us if they were frightened. Maybe in tomorrow's pater we'll get the whole story.

oops paper.

you 2 idiots seem to think this is a joke or tv show. a woman and child lost a loved one and you only can come up with this bs. my sincere simpathy to the ones left behind.

So how is the cow thing relevant to this story??? A man lost his life, in a tragic accident. My condolences to the family.

Mr. Cousins, please edit this story and remove that line about the cows. No one cares about it and it has no place in a story like this. What were you thinking??

Thank you Anthoine and Michigal! It was all about a family losing their husband and father. Some people enjoy finding fault and have to write something; immaturity. God bless the family.

If the cows had nothing to do with the reporting, then why all the attention towards the cos..............

We don't know what caused the accident. Maybe a medical condition, maybe working a double shift, and tired. What to heck does the cows matter that they scurried to another field? My condolences to the family of this man.

The sentinel actually covered the story. They reported he recently had heart surgery, returned to work and this was his first night back on the job. He fell asleep at the wheel according to police. So, "boxcarharry" let's stop the notion of a cellphone being involved right now.

It's hard enough to find work, but when someone goes back to work after that kind of operation, I refuse to watch that person be painted by baseless assumptions.

Since there was supposedly no evidence that the guy tried to brake, it sounds like he may have fallen asleep at the wheel. A real tragedy indeed ---especially since he was so close to arriving at his home !!!

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