BELFAST, Maine — Four people were injured Wednesday afternoon after a woman who allegedly had suffered a mental episode careened into Route 1 at the intersection with Route 141 in Belfast.
Jenny Orcutt, 31, of Searsport was driving a Ford sedan on Route 141 toward the intersection about 4:30 p.m. when she veered off the road, drove over a lawn across the southbound lane of Route 1 and then jumped over the median. Orcutt’s car then broadsided a northbound van from Bay Taxi, which had three people inside, according to Sgt. Matthew Cook of the Belfast Police Department.
After the crash, Cook said, witnesses told police that Orcutt was yelling out verses from Scripture and singing hymns.
Everyone involved in the crash was taken to Waldo County General Hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening, he said. Orcutt broke her nose and suffered a head injury. The other victims, whom Cook said he could not immediately identify, suffered a variety of injuries.
Cook said that when he spoke to Orcutt at the hospital, she calmly told him that “Jesus told her to do it.”
He said she was having her mental health evaluated and was not likely to be charged in connection with the crash, adding that her mental state did not indicate she could be found culpable of a crime.
Both the vehicles were totaled in the crash, which slowed northbound traffic for about 20 minutes while emergency responders cleared the scene.