FRANKFORT, Maine — A midcoast woman who died Tuesday when her car crossed the centerline of Route 1A and struck an oncoming vehicle was under investigation for her role in a similar head-on crash last August.
Teresa Sirois, 34, of Brooks died in the crash shortly before 5 p.m. Monday in Frankfort. Maine State Police is trying to determine why her vehicle crossed into the wrong lane. The driver of the other car, Randall Pukay, 53, of Bucksport, was injured and taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Just six months ago, Sirois was involved in a similar crash, in which her vehicle crossed the centerline of Route 1 in Searsport and struck another car head-on. That wreck tied up traffic on a busy stretch of the highway, contributing to at least three other crashes involving drivers who were trying to navigate detours. Three people had to be extricated from their vehicles in the secondary crashes, but no one involved in those crashes was injured.
Sirois’ 3-year-old son was secured in a child’s car seat in the back seat of her vehicle in the crash last August and again Monday, but he was not seriously injured in either crash. In August, Sirois and the driver of the other car each suffered a broken leg and other injuries, and a passenger in the other car had cuts and abrasions, police said at the time.
“The investigation into the Searsport crash was never completed, and we still don’t have a ‘full understanding’ of what caused it,” Waldo County District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said Wednesday. He said his office was awaiting further witness interviews and blood tests before deciding whether any charges should be filed in the Searsport crash. LaHaye said last summer that there were no witnesses, aside from those in the two vehicles involved in the crash.
It’s unclear whether the investigation into the August crash will continue with Sirois deceased or whether any further information will be released about what may have caused her to drive into oncoming traffic in Searsport six months ago.
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