WOOLWICH, Maine — A Damariscotta woman faces multiple charges after investigators said she intentionally drove her Ford Focus into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer Thursday afternoon on Route 1.
Sandra Francis, 36, was taken to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick with injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to a news release from Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry. The driver of the 2008 Peterbuilt tractor-trailer, 66-year-old Robert Martin of Sunapee, New Hampshire, was not injured.
Just before 5 p.m. Thursday, sheriff’s deputies and other emergency personnel went to Route 1 just north of the southern entrance to George Wright Road for reports of the crash.
Investigators believe Martin was headed south on Route 1 in the tractor-trailer, which was towing a 2008 Polar tanker trailer, when Francis, who was headed north, veered directly into its path, Merry said. The sheriff said Martin “made every attempt to avoid the collision and ended up wedged against a line of guardrails.”
Firefighters from Woolwich and Bath, working with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and local contractor Jack A. Shaws & Sons, kept 20 to 25 gallons of spilled diesel fuel from draining into the adjacent Sasanoa River, Woolwich Fire Chief Mike Demers said Friday.
Route 1 was closed for about five hours and traffic was diverted onto George Wright Road.
“If not for the actions of the truck driver, this would likely have been a fatal crash,” Merry said in the news release.
The crash remained under investigation Friday, with Sgt. Dale Hamilton of the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office leading it. The sheriff’s office with assistance from Brunswick police was reconstructing the crash.