JACKSON, Maine — A Belfast man died and a Jackson woman is in critical condition after a Friday night single-vehicle crash on the Works Road that wasn’t discovered until early Saturday morning, police said.
Passenger Hazen Tibbetts, 20, was killed, Maine State Trooper Bethany Couturier said Saturday afternoon.
Brianna Barrows, 20, was the driver, and on Sunday afternoon still was listed in critical condition at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Dale Hustus, the assistant chief of the Jackson Volunteer Fire Department, said that a man cutting wood in the area early Saturday morning was the first to spot the crash after he noticed vehicle tracks going off the Works Road.
Hustus, who was the first emergency worker at the scene at about 7 a.m., said that after the 1991 Volvo went off the road, it evidently hit a tree when it was “on its nose.”
The impact crushed the hood and the trunk, and then the car spun sideways and landed on its side.
When emergency crews went to check on the occupants, they saw that Tibbetts already was deceased. But Hustus said he was surprised after he went to determine whether Barrows had a pulse.
“When I touched her, she started making noises. She knew I was there,” he said. “Her will to live had to be great, because she spent the whole night in the cold in a wreck, hanging sideways.”
Tibbetts and Barrows had to be extricated from the crumpled Volvo using a hydraulic tool that was borrowed from Brooks Fire Department, Hustus said.
Barrows was taken to EMMC by LifeFlight helicopter, Couturier said.
The Works Road is hilly and was icy Friday night, according to the trooper.
“Definitely road conditions played a part,” she said.
Officials are not sure exactly when the crash occurred or how fast the Volvo was traveling. Couturier said that without the wrecked car’s headlights on, other drivers would have had trouble seeing it overnight, even though the accident happened about 20 yards from the road.
Friday night was cold, with the temperature in nearby Belfast dipping to 19 degrees.
According to Couturier, a blood alcohol content test was performed on both Barrows and Tibbetts, as is the procedure in all fatal car accidents. The test results were not available this weekend.
A police accident reconstructionist worked at the scene Saturday morning, she said.
The Waldo County Sheriff’s Department, the Jackson Fire Department and the Brooks Fire Department all assisted at the crash site.
“Anytime you have a fatality like that, it’s a tough scene,” Hustus said.