RICHMOND, Maine — A Norridgewock woman was issued a ticket for failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle after crashing along Interstate 295 Tuesday night.
Maine State Police Trooper Chris Rogers said the crash was reported at 5:08 p.m. Tuesday along I-295 northbound near mile marker 46, just past the Alexander Reed Road overpass.
Rogers said Faustina Ryder, 33, of Norridgewock was driving her 1998 Honda Civic north and told Rogers her phone fell off the seat onto the floor. She reached for it, took her eyes off the road, and crossed both lanes, went off the left side of the road, overcorrected and came back across both lanes and went off the highway on the right side. Rogers said the car overturned, hit a couple of small fir trees and came to rest on its roof.
There were no other passengers and no other vehicles were involved, Rogers said. Ryder sustained minor injuries of cuts and bruises and was evaluated at the scene by North East Mobile Health Services emergency personnel. Her car was towed by Rick’s Towing. Rogers said one lane of the highway was closed for between 20 and 25 minutes so the trees could be cut and vehicle removed.
Richmond, Bowdoinham and Bowdoin fire departments were on scene.
Rogers issued Ryder the civil infraction of failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle.
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Thank goodness she didnt hit someone else and kill them.tougher laws are needed.this is willful negligence
Distracted driving is already illegal.
I know.it just needs to be a little tougher.we were rearended by someone and our car was totalled last month.she wasnt paying attention either
If the law was that if you cause damage, you pay for it, wouldn’t that be enough?
you dont get extra for losing time off from work or having no car.it is just little annoying things that you pay extra for.we had our car almost paid off,now we will have payments again.
I think all of those things should be covered by the one who caused the accident.
no they were not
They should have been.
allstate insurance was excellent(the people who hit us didnt report it to them for over a week).but there hands were tierd when the people didnt call them about it.my insurance company , the hartford, was also excellent
Unfortunately to recover anything lost like that you have to file a civil suit. So you could potentially get damages, but you will have to go to court for that. But a rental should have provided at no cost, you just might have had to ask for it.
Unless they didn’t have insurance, their insurance will supply you with a rental for awhile, of course with some insurances they won’t volunteer this information so you have to make them give it to you. Also check your policy as sometime your insurance will pay for a rental.
Just remember when dealing with Insurance Companies, some are good and others you have to force to get what you should get.
we drove a 3 hour round trip to get the rental car they promised and alas it was messed up and there was no car,we live in the boonies.the accident happened 2 hours fromhome.had to get a ride.pain in the butt.all the way around.
One thing you should do is keep good records & mileage traveled of incidences like this for later reference.
Unfortunately the fact that the other people didn’t report the accident for a week does cause problems and inconvenience for you.
Suicide is also illegal
I’d say it was more a reaction than willful. Isn’t it similar to trying to swat a bee or picking up a dropped cigarette or tending to a crying baby in the back seat? All of these distractions have caused accidents that people did not willfully get in to. Hopefully, a lesson was learned.
i dont smoke,eat,read the paper,or reach for things when driving.i dont even care for the radio.i am extremely a defense driver.and funny as it seems I use both hands on the wheel.LOL
Well, I respect that you are a responsible driver, miss, I really do. Myself, I have never even owned a cell phone. My only point is that I don’t think it was willful to lose control of the car and drive off into the trees. I think it is just that she was charged for the offense, as well.
“failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle ” I see a lot of this everyday, and they don’t even need a cell phone.
Some people just can’t live without their phone.
She almost didn’t live because of it.
now she needs a new phone AND a new car……hope that text or call was worth it.
I am going to be insulting and say “So stupid” Is getting OR missing a phone call and/or getting where she was going so important that she couldn’t take the couple minutes that it takes to pull over off the road to look for her phone?? Not answering the phone would not kill her but answering it could!! And a little jab for the ad companies,, “Just goes to show you that people don’t pay attention to ads!!”
Killer cellphones! The machines we have created are slowly beginning to rebel and we soon will be eliminated.