A two-vehicle crash in Frenchville left the drivers uninjured but took out a resident’s mailbox and damaged her front porch. Thanks to a tall tree stump, her home remains intact.
Nancy Dellagrotta is grateful she decided to leave the nearly 6-foot trunk in front of her living room window after utility crews cut most of its branches.
“They had cut so much I told them to just take it down, but leave the trunk that height,” she said Wednesday, adding she thought it might offer protection since her house is close to the roadway. “The tree I grieved saved my life.”
Dellagrotta was startled last Tuesday morning by a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass when a pickup slammed into the tree — which stopped it from plowing into the couch on which she was sitting.
Improper passing caused the Oct. 20 crash, Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Isaac Ward said Friday.
No one was seriously injured and neither vehicle was speeding, Ward said.
That morning at about 6:45 a.m., driver Michael Dumond of Madawaska was traveling north on Route 1, just north of Starbarn Road, in a 2019 Ford pickup. He overcorrected while trying to pass a 2020 Western Star work truck driven by Lance Michaud, also of Madawaska, according to a crash report the Bangor Daily News obtained Friday from the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Deputy Dustin Charette investigated.
Dumond struck the front of Michaud’s truck and swerved into Dellagrotta’s yard, damaging her mailbox, porch and front lawn, the report stated.
The collision damaged the center passenger side of Dumond’s pickup, which was towed. There were no adverse weather conditions and both drivers wore seat belts, according to the report.
No charges were specified.
Dellagrotta showed a reporter the damage, which included a leaning front porch pillar, broken ironwork and about a 2-foot-long marred spot on the tree trunk.
She showed a photograph depicting the felled mailbox, which had included a large arm and a post set in cement.
It isn’t the first time vehicles have left souvenirs, she said. Many trucks speed along the 45 mph stretch so fast things fly out of the beds. She’s collected cinder blocks, tires and more.
Her insurance company is working to resolve property repairs, she said.