HOULTON, Maine — A Houlton woman who allegedly was drunk and speeding with her 5-year-old son in the vehicle is facing three charges after an accident in the community.
Police Chief Butch Asselin said Tuesday afternoon that 33-year-old Meredith Green was charged with operating under the influence, driving to endanger and endangering the welfare of a child after the early morning accident on April 14 in which her vehicle also caught fire.
Asselin said that Officer Stephen Nason was parked on Military Street around 7:30 a.m. when he saw a large plume of dust at the intersection of Main and Military streets. Once Nason arrived at the scene, he saw where a vehicle apparently had gone through the yield sign at the end of Main Street, proceeded across Military Street and come to rest in a clump of trees at the Hillview Avenue and Military Street intersection.
The vehicle was on fire.
Nason extinguished the blaze with a fire extinguisher from the cruiser as other people stopped to assist. One individual was able to remove Green from the vehicle. Green’s son also was removed safely from the 1999 Jeep Cherokee.
As Nason was putting the fire out with the extinguisher, a gust of wind blew the dry chemical powder back into his face. Nason inhaled some of the powder which later required him to seek medical attention.
Officer Erica Pelletier arrived on scene to assist with the investigation. Pelletier noticed that Green had difficulty standing and keeping her eyes open. Green told police that the crash happened after her son indicated that he wanted something and she turned toward him, taking her eyes off the road.
Green and her son were taken to Houlton Regional Hospital. A blood sample subsequently was obtained from Green, but the results were not released. She was arrested and charged with the three offenses.
Green’s son was medically cleared and released to a relative and the Department of Health and Human Services was contacted. Bail for Green was set at $1,000 and at DHHS’ request, a condition of bail was that Green have no contact with her son.
The 1999 Jeep Cherokee was a total loss.
Nason, who was having difficulty breathing, was treated and then released from the hospital.
Or, “Nice job trying to save the life of the driver and her son”.
The extinguisher should come with an early warning windsock so he could’ve known the wind was gonna change direction.
He was trying to help- if you must say something nasty say something about the drunken woman driving around with her 5 year old in the car. The police are human too , & I bet you could not have done any better.
Thank goodness the boy was not injured from the accident. I hope his mom thinks that as well once sobered up. Officer Nason, thank you for doing your job and doing it well. You respond to many calls where one’s stupidity puts you and others in harm’s way but yet you still respond to bring order to chaos and you do it because you signed up for it!
Nason did a good job here! But why does DHS want her to have NO contact with her son? Hes 5! She should get supervised visits I would think. Yes I KNOW SHE WAS DRUNK still she should be able to as long as shes supervised!!
I agree, not necessarily for the mother’s benefit, but for the child’s. This little boy was put in a scary sitaution that could have turned out much worse. He likely does not even come close to understand what is going on with the entire situation, other than he cannot see his mother. I don’t know the family, but in thinking of the best interests of the child, supervised visits should be allowed.
It may not be her first unfit parenting issue I never thought of that! Either way that poor child probably thinks his mother died in the accident or something as to why he cant see her hes soo young :( hope this turns out well for the child
Perhaps it’s not her first round of unfit parenting? I’ve no idea really but that might explain this extreme action. And I am in no way defending DHS – just trying to figure out why the no contact.
I dont agree with DHS taking her child. I know her and she is a great mom who obviously made a grave mistake. She needs her son and her son needs her. They over reached for sure.
She could have killed her child because of her drinking. Now is that a good mother? I’m sure that this wasn’t the first time she’s done this either. She needs to set her priorities and get help for drinking before she can be a good mother.