OLD TOWN, Maine — A fatal car accident on U.S. Route 2 early Tuesday has claimed the life of a 19-year-old University of Maine student, Old Town police Capt. Kyle Smart said.
Timothy J. Dodge of Rockland was heading away from campus in a silver sedan when he veered from the roadway at around 5:15 a.m., the police captain said.
“It went off the right hand side of the road and struck a tree,” Smart said. “It appears he was killed instantly.”
Dodge was alone in the car.
“Speed was a factor,” Smart said. “Beyond that [little is known]. We’ll be doing chemical tests. We have a detective retracing his steps over the last day to see what he was up to,” which is a standard procedure.
The possibility that Dodge just fell asleep has not been ruled out, the police captain said.
The crash closed South Main Street from the Orono town line to the Regency Trailer Park. The roadway reopened at around 10:30 a.m., Smart said.
Dodge, nicknamed “TJ,” was a psychology student at UMaine, according to the Maine Campus newspaper.
Officer Lee Miller is heading up the accident reconstruction portion of the investigation. He was assisted by officers from Orono and Bangor police departments.