A Sullivan woman is suing the discount chain Dollar Tree over a crash last year at its Ellsworth store in which she was injured by a truck that plowed through the front entrance.
Diane Martin, 67, was shopping in the store, located next to Marden’s on Route 3, when a pickup truck smashed through the front entrance on Dec. 5, 2022. Four others in the store also suffered injuries not considered life-threatening when Joseph LaFrance, 80, of Ellsworth, accidentally accelerated and drove his Chevrolet pickup into the store.
In the lawsuit, Martin accuses Dollar Tree Stores Inc. of being aware prior to the accident that bollards installed outside the entrance were insufficient for preventing vehicles from crashing through the facade. Even though the bollards were not crash-tested, Dollar Tree had the bollards installed in front of the entrance “to give an appearance to the public that the Ellsworth Dollar Tree was a safe place to frequent,” the complaint says.
The civil complaint was filed in Kennebec County Superior Court on Nov. 13, according to a court clerk.
Martin’s attorney, Taylor Asen of Auburn, claims in the complaint that the company owns more than 16,000 Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores in the U.S. and Canada and that “for many years” the company has known that storefront crashes pose a hazard to its customers.
“Since 2009, there have been at least 140 crashes into Dollar Tree storefronts” and “at least 80 crashes into the storefronts of Family Dollar,” Asen wrote in the complaint. “Many of these storefront crashes resulted in injuries to Dollar Tree and Family Dollar customers.”
An email seeking comment from Dollar Tree was not immediately returned on Tuesday. John Veilleux, a Portland lawyer who is representing LaFrance in the lawsuit, declined to comment Tuesday about the allegations.
Martin was standing in the checkout line when LaFrance’s truck crashed through the entrance and struck her, causing unspecified “serious and debilitating injuries,” the lawsuit says. As a result, she has experienced “permanent impairment, emotional distress,” financial losses and costs, as well as “pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life.”
In the lawsuit, she accuses LaFrance, Dollar Tree and Miser Investments LLC, which owns Marden’s and the Ellsworth property where Dollar Tree is located, of negligence. She also accuses McCue Corp. of manufacturing defective and dangerous bollards, and of not providing reasonable warning about the risk of harm that they posed.
Martin is seeking unspecified monetary damages — including punitive and compensatory damages, interest and costs — and “other and further relief” from the defendants.