A survivor of the deadly crash Thursday in Buxton says that Angel Greene, the 16-year-old who died in the accident, was not driving the vehicle when it went off the road.
Zakary Pacillo, 19, one of four people in the car when it crashed at 1:30 a.m., said his friend Eddie Estey, 17, of Standish was at the wheel, and that Pacillo had urged Estey to slow down just before the vehicle went airborne on Turkey Lane.
The small sport utility vehicle crashed into a tree and utility pole, and rolled over. Greene, of Standish, was thrown from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
Pacillo was in fair condition Friday at Maine Medical Center in Portland. From his hospital bed, he described the accident.
“I remember telling Eddie, the driver, to slow down. Instead of slowing down, he sped up,” Pacillo said. “We went airborne. The vehicle landed sideways. I closed my eyes and held on to Angel in the back seat, then everything went black and got quiet.”
Police released no new details about the crash Friday and have not said who was driving or confirmed the identities of those in the car besides Greene and Pacillo. But Pacillo said the others in the car were Estey, the driver, and Autumn Klehn, 16, of Standish, the front-seat passenger.
Maine Medical Center said it has no information on the conditions of Estey or Klehn, both students at Bonny Eagle High School, as was Greene. Estey’s father said Friday he had no comment on the crash or on Pacillo’s account.
Police said speed was a factor in the crash, and Greene’s mother, Christa Greene of Standish, said Thursday that police had told her that alcohol may have been a contributing factor, but police would not confirm that. Pacillo said alcohol was not a factor in the accident.
The crash was reported right away, he said.
“I got up, looked around. I couldn’t see anything. We were upside down,” he said. “I crawled out of the upside-down (car) with all of my broken bones, knocked on the neighbor’s door and (they) immediately called 911,” Pacillo said. He has fractures in his back, a broken collarbone, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding, he said.
Stephanie Christiana, who lives across the street from the crash site, said Friday that the crash victim who came to her door was covered in blood.
“He said he was the passenger and he said the driver was missing from the vehicle,” she recalled. “The two kids who were trapped in the car kept saying ‘Where’s Angel? Where’s Angel?'”
Christiana said the two who were still in the car appeared to be in the back seat, not the front.
“The girl definitely was in the back seat. The other young man, I believe he was in the back seat. I don’t know if he originally was in the front,” Christiana said Friday.
Buxton police Friday could provide no spokesman to discuss the crash. The chief is on vacation, the officer in charge wasn’t working until Friday night and the officer leading the investigation finished his shift at 7 a.m. Friday.
According to the Maine Secretary of State’s Office, Estey has a clean driving record and Greene did not have a driver’s license.
Christa Greene said Thursday that she didn’t know her daughter had sneaked out of the house the previous night until police told her that the teenager had died in the accident.
Pacillo said he is still trying to process what happened.
“I know Angel is gone,” he said. “It’s just really super hard to wrap my head around because the last thing I remember is I had my arms around her trying to protect her because she wasn’t wearing a seat belt.”
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