Police investigate fatality
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
USING A TOUCH SCREEN, Presque Isle Police Chief Matt Irwin shows a video taken with his cruiser’s dash cam depicting how quickly white-out conditions took over at the site of a fatal motor vehicle accident on the Conant Road Monday.
Looking on at right is Martin Puckett, deputy city manager and Presque Isle’s public information officer. A press conference was held Tuesday afternoon at the Public Safety Building to provide additional information about the Feb. 18 crash that claimed the life of a Fort Fairfield man.
PRESQUE ISLE — A press conference was held late Tuesday afternoon at the Public Safety Building, with city officials offering few additional details about the fatal accident Monday that claimed the life of one man and critically injured another man — both from Fort Fairfield.
Martin Puckett, the city’s deputy city manager and public information officer, offered a review of the accident details. The Monday incident involving four vehicles was actually two separate accidents that occurred within minutes of each other. The first involved a Chevy pickup striking a city plow truck head-on. The second involved the plow truck, a Ford Escape that had stopped behind the plow truck following the first accident and a loaded log truck that was unable to stop when it came upon the scene.
“The city offers its condolences during this tragic and unfortunate event. We’re offering assistance to the city employees who were involved in any way on Monday,” said Puckett.
Puckett, when asked how much time transpired between the first and second accident, said he wasn’t sure of the timeframe but that both parties from the first accident were in the plow truck exchanging insurance information when the second accident occurred.
“We do know that the driver of the Ford Escape remains in critical condition at a Bangor hospital at this time,” said Puckett.
The driver of the Ford Escape has been identified as David Hayes, 63, of Fort Fairfield. His passenger, Roman Yoder, 22, of Fort Fairfield, died at the scene as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
Presque Isle Police Chief Matt Irwin provided additional information as to weather conditions at the time of the accidents.
“The primary factors from what we’ve been able to determine were white-out and road conditions. We were also experiencing 25-50 mile an hour wind gusts at the time of the accident,” said Irwin.
Irwin said he wasn’t sure if airbags deployed or seatbelts were used in the Ford, due to the extent of damage the vehicle sustained.
“The investigation is ongoing. We’re awaiting blood results, etc.,” said the chief.
“We’ll provide more information as details become available,” added Puckett.
Irwin shared video taken at the scene, showing how quickly the weather changed.
“My dash cam video shows the difference a few seconds made with regard to weather at the scene,” said Irwin, as he played a clip on the new interactive screen in the Public Safety Building’s conference room. In the footage the log truck was visible one moment, then the wind picked up, causing snow to totally block the truck from view.
Irwin said that’s part of the reason why it’s taking longer to investigate what happened.
“The blowing snow prevented us from determining tracks. We’re waiting on the State Police to complete their report,” said Irwin, noting the State Police were called in to perform accident reconstruction.
