CUMBERLAND, Maine — A Windham man was seriously injured Thursday afternoon when he crashed his Harley-Davidson motorcycle on Interstate 295 near mile marker 13.
Maine State Police Trooper Doug Cropper said Thomas Thompson, 40, suffered severe head injuries and was in critical condition Thursday afternoon at Maine Medical Center in Portland.
According to Cropper, Thompson was headed south in the passing lane on I-295 just after 1 p.m. when he pulled into the right lane to pass a vehicle and lost control. Cropper said a witness at the scene said the front wheel of the motorcycle was shaking badly before the crash.
“He just couldn’t get it under control,” said Cropper.
Thompson’s motorcycle left more than 400 feet of skid marks down the center of the travel lane, which Cropper said indicates Thompson didn’t go onto the shoulder or lose control on the rumble strip. Based on evidence at the scene, Cropper estimated that Thompson, an experienced motorcycle rider who has had his license since 2004, was traveling at approximately 75 miles per hour. Thompson, whose injuries are serious enough to be potentially life-threatening, according to Cropper, was not wearing a helmet.
I-295 was closed for about an hour after the crash and traffic was backed up for at least three miles, said Cropper. The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing.
Hope all involved were ok.
Doubt that, someone else in the other car must be to blame for these motorcycle wrecks!
hope he ok but you know if we ban motorcycles then there would not have been an accident after all motorcycles are for fun like fireworks not for true need of transportation.
Yes, and then we can ban smoking, alcohol, soda, fast food, video games, competitive sports, small cars, hunting, boating, and basically all freedom we enjoy as US citizens.
i hope you know i was being sarcastic, as tired of all the fireworks are so dangerous comments and storys when really it is the users that are the issue
Okay, I thought you were one of those nuts from Belfast.
Ban politicians.
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Prayers for Thomas to be healed as soon as can be and riding down the road again, hoping he’ll be wearing a helmet..
I’ve seen many riders w/o headgear and I can empathize with them how much freedom feels riding down the hi-way, hair blowin’ in the wind.. No one expects they’re going to fall or lose control. Please, helmets all around and leatherware too..
Saw at least 8 bikes from Quebec pass me on I-95N tonight. At least half did not have helmets. Any distance with no helmet is dangerous, let alone all the way from Quebec.
More importantly, I hope Mr. Thompson recovers swiftly, and wears his helmet in the future.
I’ll bet that some of those bikers were wearing shorts and sleeveless shirts.. think of the road burn.. When bikers crash and scrape their skin, the pain is like carpet burn X 1,000, the toughest guy will scream in pain. The wounds have to be scraped to get all the debris.. Ouch!
Road rash is the least of his problems.
Mr. Thompson is lucky to be alive, I pray for a speedy recovery.
I remember when I was young my dad flipped his bike and had 3rd degree burns down his arm and hip. I saw him get those scraped out and it wasnt pleasant. Thats was one of the few times I ever saw him cry. He was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Luckily he kept his head up but who knows if he will be so lucky next time. Hoping for a speedy recovery for Mr. Thompson.
Sorry your Dad had to go through that pain, glad he is ok.
You said, “..who knows if he will be so lucky next time”.. If he’s still riding I hope he’s wearing the gear. Tell him you don’t want to lose him.. I’m sure he’ll be thinking about it. You could show him this article, he may tell me to go fly a kite, haha..
Sounds like the dreaded Harley Death Wobble has struck again!
“He just couldn’t get it under control,” said Cropper.
That’s it, so is it lost control you are saying? If it is how did he loose control, too fast? Mechanical?
The last line of the article that you seemed not to read – “The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing.”
Oh that’s horse crap if the cop is already blaming control, if you are making a statement that “He couldn’t get it under control” then saying an investigation is under way is basically telling the media “No time for more questions”
Ah no it isn’t considering he left 400 FEET OF SKID MARKS which translates to a football field and a third. And yeah know something, the Trooper gets paid to investigate not answer the medias inquires prior to the conclusion of the investigation. That job falls to Steve McClausland of the MSP.
“Cropper said a witness at the scene said the front wheel of the motorcycle was shaking badly before the crash. ”
Harley Death Wobble! Most Harley people know about it, but they choose to ignore it because it hurts the image.
I’ve witnessed the Harley death wobble twice while riding with friends. One died when he hit the guard rail, the other survived only because he was very fortunate and didn’t hit anything after he went down. It usually hits around 65-75 mph. Once the wobble starts, it is almost
impossible to get out of it. Your handle bars become gas tank slappers
within seconds. I got rid of my Road King after the second incident and bought a Victory. As loyal to the motor company as I was, the fact that they would cover up this design flaw for so many years rather than fix it only proves HD’s ignorance to profit over safety. A fix has been readily available for years but HD never advertised it or recalled any bikes. Everyone that has sued HD is forced into a hushed settlement. They are not allowed to discuss the incident with anyone or HD will sue them. Since 2009 a re-design has supposedly corrected the death wobble problem. But I will never go back to it.
Best wishes for a full recovery.
Speeding, improper passing and no helmet use — I wonder how he ended up with “severe head injuries”?