County drivers
involved in recent accidents
By Kathy McCarty
ASHLAND — For the second time this summer, a tractor-trailer truck has crashed attempting to make a curve just over four miles east of Ashland on Route 163.
“An 18-wheeler traveling eastward crashed in the same identical spot as an accident about a month ago involving a tractor-trailer truck,” said Chief Cyr Martin, Ashland Police Department, of the Aug. 30 accident.
Martin said drivers — especially truck drivers — “fail to negotiate that curve” from time to time.
“They (drivers) don’t take the curve into consideration,” said Martin, noting a slower speed is advised for motorists to safely make the corner.
The accident was reported around 2:26 p.m. When emergency personnel arrived, they found the truck and trailer tipped and the load of logs spilled over the embankment.
Martin indicated a problem with the trailer may have been the cause.
“A possible defect to the trailer may have caused the accident. Witnesses said the trailer started to tip when it was making the curve,” said the chief. “The trailer spilled its load of logs. They went flying off the trailer, down the embankment and into the treeline.”
The driver was shaken but not seriously injured.
“When I got there, the driver — Jeremy Monteith, 38, of Houlton — was trapped in the vehicle. His head was caught between the seat and back window. He had cuts to the back of his head and his arm but was otherwise just shaken up,” said Martin. “He just wanted out of the truck.”
Emergency personnel were able to free his head. Monteith was treated at the scene.
The 2006 Sterling truck and 2003 trailer, owned by Kevin Tuttle Trucking of Houlton, sustained about $70,000 in damage and was considered a total loss.
Assisting Martin at the scene were the Ashland Fire Department, Ashland Ambulance Service and Trooper Darryl Pelletier of the Maine State Police.
Distracted driver in accident
LITTLETON — A Mapleton man was in fair condition Tuesday at Eastern Maine Medical Center according to a hospital spokesperson there following a two-car, head-on collision Monday at approximately 6:15 p.m. in Littleton.
Dave Guerrette, 27, was traveling southbound on U.S. Route 1 in a 2000 Honda Civic when Elmo Villeneuve, 22, of Royalton, N.B. was distracted by a for-sale sign on a pick-up truck as he attempted to turn left into a driveway. Villeneuve was in a northbound lane in his 2005 Chevy pick-up, according to Sgt. Julie Bergan of the state police.
Guerrette was transferred originally to Houlton Regional Hospital with several broken bones, according to the police report. Villeneuve was not injured but his vehicle sustained about $4,000 damage and Guerrette’s car was totaled, also according to state police.
Bergan said there was no obvious use of intoxicants. Chief Deputy Craig Clossey and Deputy Rudolph Levesque of the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department assisted Maine State Trooper Chad Fuller, the investigating officer. Houlton and Littleton Fire Departments also assisted by diverting traffic at the scene about one mile north of Porter’s gas station.
