MILLINOCKET, Maine — The man who died in a two-vehicle crash on Route 157 on Tuesday was 60-year-old Leslie Morgridge, according to police.
A Millinocket resident, Morgridge was in a 2007 Dodge Caliber that had stopped near Huber and Rice Farm roads shortly before it was rear-ended by a 1998 Nissan Pathfinder traveling west toward Millinocket at about 4:15 p.m., Millinocket Police Chief Steve Kenyon said Wednesday.
Police ask anyone who was traveling east in that area shortly before the accident occurred to call 723-9731. It is hoped such witnesses might shed some light on events leading up to the crash, Kenyon said.
“We don’t know why he was stopped and we were unable to get that information from the passenger,” Kenyon said Wednesday.
Morgridge was pronounced dead at the scene. Three others were taken to Millinocket Regional Hospital, the accident’s investigator, Officer David Cram, has said. Kenyon declined on Wednesday to release the names of the injured people or the driver of the Pathfinder until the investigation is finished.
Cram said he suspected the Pathfinder’s driver may have been blinded by the sun’s glare, which typically is very bright along that stretch of Route 157 during that time of day.
Traffic along Route 157, the road connecting Millinocket to East Millinocket and points east, was stopped until about 8:30 p.m. as state police and Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office deputies reconstructed the accident and mapped it forensically, Cram said.