PITTSFIELD, Maine — State police suspect that the driver of a truck headed the wrong-way on Interstate 95 that collided head-on with another vehicle late Sunday was “intoxicated and disoriented,” a spokesman said Monday.
That driver — 70-year-old Hugh Brawn of Clinton — underwent hip surgery Sunday night at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor and remained there in improved condition, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said in a statement released Monday afternoon.
Brawn was driving his truck southbound in the northbound lane of I-95 near mile marker 150 around 6:50 p.m. Sunday when he struck a vehicle driven by Tristan Kaldenberg, 19, of Littleton, Massachusetts, according to police.
A student at Husson University who was returning to Bangor at the time of the accident, Kaldenberg remained in critical condition at EMMC on Monday, McCausland said.
Troopers told McCausland that there was little Kaldenberg could do to avoid the accident.
“The crash took place at the top of a slight rise on the northbound side and Kaldenberg had only seconds to react,” McCausland said.
Kaldenberg was taken by Lifeflight to EMMC. Brawn was transported there by Delta Ambulance, according to McCausland.
State police continue to investigate the crash to determine why Brawn was driving in the wrong lane, but McCausland reported that troopers “suspect the driver of the truck going the wrong way was intoxicated and disoriented.”