|
ELLSWORTH — Four
blameless, elderly women were injured in a
dramatic accident Tuesday on Route 1A in which all
three vehicles were destroyed by fire.
The women were not
burned thanks to passersby, as well as the driver
of one of the vehicles — a tractor-trailer, — who
pulled the women to safety.
Police report that
a southbound car passing the tractor trailer on
the right going up McGowan’s Hill in the slow
lane, struck the front bumper of the truck as it
was trying to merge into the travel lane as the
slow lane ended.
The car and the
tractor-trailer went out of control and crossed
the center line, coming to rest in the northbound
lane, at which point a northbound car struck the
southbound car.
Melissa Yerxa, 56,
of Jonesboro had been driving south in a 1999
Subaru station wagon, which hit the 1997
Freightliner, driven by Clarence Grant, 39, of
Ellsworth, police reported.
After the Subaru
and the tractor trailer came to rest in the
northbound lane, the Subaru was struck by a 1997
Mercury, driven north by Theresa LeClair, 70, of
Brewer, police said.
After the
collision, a fire started under the hood of the
Mercury and spread to the other vehicles, police
said.
Yerxa, who was not
injured, was able to get out of her car. Grant
escaped from the tractor-trailer and helped pull
LeClair and her three passengers from the Mercury,
police reported.
The Ellsworth Fire
Department extinguished the blaze.
County
Ambulance took LeClair and her passengers to
Eastern
Maine Medical
Center.
LeClair was in
fair condition Wednesday morning. A passenger,
Mary Small, 75, was listed in serious condition,
hospital officials report.
Another passenger,
Elizabeth O’Connell, 74, was in fair condition.
The fourth
passenger, Florence Ross, 81, was treated and
released.
Police said each
of the cars destroyed was worth about $6,000 and
the tractor trailer will cost about $120,000 to
replace.
Police are still
investigating the accident. |
