BURNHAM, Maine — An accident involving a pickup truck and a motorcycle Wednesday afternoon caused the motorcycle driver to be flown to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for treatment of a traumatic head injury.
The crash occurred at about 5:15 p.m., when a southbound 1999 Ford F150 truck, driven by Israel Irish, 42, of Burnham, made a left hand turn off the South Horseback Road and into a driveway. Aime Danny Dempsey, 64, of Burnham, was traveling north on the road and when the truck entered his path, he couldn’t avoid the collision, according to a press release issued Thursday by the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office.
Although Irish was uninjured, Dempsey suffered head trauma. Police said they did not find a helmet at the scene and believe Dempsey was not wearing one.
The motorcycle sustained extensive damage and the truck had some damage to the passenger side.
Dempsey was transported by LifeFlight to the Bangor hospital. Deputy Nicholas Oettinger was the primary responding deputy, and was assisted by Sgt. Dale Brown, Detective Jason Bosco and Deputy Benjamin Seekins, all of the sheriff’s office.
Seekins is performing an accident reconstruction of the scene, according to the press release.
Still under investigation, nobody knows how far apart everyone was or how fast everyone was going, let the blaming begin, ready….. go!
Best wishes to all involved.
Yup, I love the freedom to not wear a helmet.
Another driver turning into the path of a motorcyclist he “didn’t see.” It’s really a shame that this dangerous, careless behavior behind the wheel is legal.
What is wrong with not seeing? You and I as drivers, don’t see with our eye receptors, we see traffic trouble with our cognitive brains. Maybe the driver asked himself if any traffic was coming before crossing the other lane and mistakenly violating the right-of-way of the motorcyclist, just like you and I normally do each day when we make a general oncoming traffic check. Maybe in his unique brain process, a moving motorcycle or bicycle, does not represent typical traffic like an impacting car or truck. The result is the brain didn’t see the oncoming motorcycle traffic, reports back to go ahead, therefore the driver executes correctly as if nothing was coming. If you were backing a car out of a driveway seen full of crawling infants, would you look first before preceding? Of course you would because you’re aware. Do you believe you can force awareness on others?
No I don’t agree with you Commutah, because it is a shame the motorcyclist didn’t prevent the preventable accident that he was warned could happen to him, and did happen to him. This “not seen” mantra is constantly repeated by us riders to each other. Do we always need to operate defensively as if we are never seen, yes? Are adjacent vehicles to intersections and driveways, predictable, potential turners, yes? Do seldom practiced, panic stops create acts to over-use the rear brake, placing the bike into an all attention getting sideways rear slide, allowing the powerful front brake to never be properly utilized, yes? Could an experienced, knowledgeable expert motorcyclist avoid injury from this type of collision, or the collision itself, 100% of the time, yes? That is the shame here, because it didn’t happen. Let’s hope he gets a chance to rectify this in the future. Dangerous behavior? When this type of dangerous behavior happens to me, I blow the shocked driver, when they finally notice me there well stopped in advance, a sweet gesture of a kiss. What is obviously dangerous in this example, is the behavior of this motorcyclists’, to himself and others. Just ask him?
Do you think I’m some type of know-it-all? Go ahead and tell me what type of accident you’re about to get into and I’ll tell you how to prevent it. Whoops I guess that is not possible.