FRANKFORT, Maine — A Camden woman traveling north on Route 1A Tuesday morning in a Jeep crossed the centerline about a mile south of the village and collided sideways with another vehicle, driven by a local woman, according to police.
The collision caused both vehicles to flip into the air and land on their roofs in the ditch. It scattered debris all over the road, said Lt. Jason Trundy of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday.
“It was a sideswipe, it wasn’t a head-on,” he said. The crash “resulted in them rolling over.”
Both drivers, who were alone in their vehicles, were taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Cecilia Wickenden, 68, was driving a 2008 Jeep Patriot, which hit a 1990 Ford Ranger driven by Rebecca Anderson, 38, of Frankfort.
Anderson is a relative of Frankfort village Fire Chief Earl Anderson, who was one of the first emergency responders to arrive at the crash scene.
“That’s my daughter-in-law,” Anderson said, standing beside the smashed Ford Ranger. “They called LifeFlight for us but it was going to take 30 minutes so they just took her” by ambulance.
“It’s hard when you arrive and see your family,” he said. “We were all at the Blue Hill Fair last night.”
Gasoline was leaking after the collision near the Howard Mendall Wildlife Management Area, so fire-retardant foam was applied as a precaution, Anderson said,
Dan Pokorny, a driver for B&B Paving, was driving south from Bangor to Stockton Springs when he came upon the scene. He grabbed a fire extinguisher he keeps in his truck and ran to help.
“The vehicle on the far end was smashed up pretty bad,” he said. “It was smoking and gas was leaking. They told me to stand there and make sure it didn’t catch fire.”
Pokorny said the two drivers appeared injured and bleeding, and Anderson was “hurting pretty bad,” he said.
The side of Anderson’s Ranger was scraped from end to end and it was missing its rear axle, which could be seen lying against a rock about 60 feet away and about halfway between the two demolished vehicles. Pieces of the truck’s suspension were found on the opposite side of the road.
The front end of Wickenden’s Jeep was ripped off, with damage concentrated on the driver’s side. The air bag was deployed.
Anderson was listed in fair condition at EMMC, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday night, and no information about Wickenden was available.
Deputies Ben Seekins and Glenn Greaf, along with Detective Jason Bosco and Trundy responded. Seekins and Greaf could be seen taking measurements and photos at the scene as part of the accident reconstruction investigation.
Fire Chief Anderson said volunteer firefighters from West Frankfort, Stockton Springs, Prospect and Hampden, and an ambulance crew from the Bangor Fire Department helped out at the scene.
The scene was cleared at 1 p.m., he said.
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