KITTERY, Maine — A tractor-trailer jackknifed on the Maine Turnpike near the New Hampshire border Tuesday morning, according to police, tying up traffic during the busy morning commute.
The accident took place in the southbound lane just after 6 a.m. Tuesday just south of the York toll plaza, public safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said in a news release.
McCausland said in a later release that the truck’s driver, Paul Regan, 55, of New Hampshire, swerved his rig across the three-lane highway to avoid a collision with another tractor-trailer.
Regan’s truck slammed into the median concrete barrier and jackknifed, blocking two of the three southbound lanes.
The truck is owned by New England Motor Freight of New Jersey and the trailer was empty, the release said. Regan had left Scarborough just before the accident and was heading to North Reading, Mass.
Regan suffered minor injuries in the accident and was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital for treatment and later released, according to the release. The cab portion of Regan’s truck was demolished.
I have a feeling this might be driver innattention. If it were icey conditions the driver would have known not to be going fast. If drivere were alert they would have seen the truck and not needed to swerve.
We have to plan how we drive. Know your suroundings. Where are the vehicles on either side? To the right is best place to go for a truck, even if it means plowing into a oak tree. It is better if we go to the right and hit a tree than block a 4 wheeler. An average truck takes a quarter mile to stop at 55 mph. Most of the freeways in Maine have at least a half mile of visibility. Going to be hard for State Police not to find driver at fault.
It doesn’t tell us why he had to swerve, it very well could have been the other truck cut in front of him and his only option was to turn the wheel. I do have a question though what if the truck he swerved around was coming back onto the highway from the shoulder? I was ridding with my father when he drove otr and we had that happen. Guess what we did hit the brakes and swerved left since right was for sure going to be a collision and the left two lanes were open.
I guess my point is if you weren’t there or didn’t see it happen why assume? Sure most likely it was driver inattention but maybe it was a quick reaction to a quickly occurring problem.
This is why I said we must plan how we drive. Its a poor idea to pass another truck near a onramp, just for the above reason you mentioned.
Just saying, its going to be hard for them to prove he was NOT at fault.
That on-ramp is a pain for trucks headed south after getting fuel at Irvings. I’ve headed south hundreds of times from that ramp. If you’re empty it’s not too bad because you can slow down and take a bit more time. If you’re fully loaded, you basically have to stand on it so you can make the bridge without causing too much of a backup behind you and hope another trucker let’s you in. There’s nothing that can be done about the ramp. It is what it is, but I can understand the circumstance from both side of this accident.