AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine experienced a deadly weekend, with six people dying in five separate crashes, according to the Maine Bureau of Highway Safety director, who also stressed the need for wearing seat belts.
“The weekend highway death count of six people killed in five separate crashes on Maine roads is rare,” director Lauren Stewart said in a news release issued Monday. The “most troubling was that five of the six killed were not wearing their seat belts.”
An elderly woman died in a head-on collision in Hampden on Sunday evening, and a Massachusetts man died early Sunday after visiting relatives in The County. Alcohol and speed are considered factors in a Friday night fatal Perham crash, officials say. Speed and alcohol also were cited by police as factors in a single-vehicle crash that killed a Millinocket couple early Saturday morning on the Golden Road in Indian Purchase Township. And a 31-year-old man died Saturday night when he was thrown from his vehicle after it went off the road, struck a ditch and overturned several times.
Police did report that a Litchfield driver who missed a turn and crashed into a tree in West Gardiner on Sunday morning was likely saved by his seat belt.
The use of “seat belts is the single most effective thing you can do to prevent injury and ejection in a motor vehicle crash,” Stewart stressed in Monday’s release.
The six fatalities over the weekend put the number of Maine highway deaths ahead of last year, with 129 compared to 128 at this time a year ago, Stewart said.
A total of 14 people were killed on Maine roads in October, and the November death count is 11.