PORTLAND – A Maine state trooper used his cruiser to keep a car headed the wrong way on I-295 from getting onto Tukey’s Bridge Friday afternoon.

State police said no one was seriously hurt in the the accident, which occurred shortly after 4 p.m.

They said drivers called to report an elderly man headed north in the southbound lanes of 295.

Trooper Douglas Cropper, who was nearby, attempted to stop the man near the Forest Avenue exits on the highway, but the man drove past.

Cropper than used a crossover lane, headed north and re-entered the southbound lanes near the Franklin Avenue exit, and used his cruiser to block the lane the wrong-way driver was using.

The two vehicles hit head-on and stopped, police said.

The driver of the wrong-way car was identified as Kenneth Gill, 88, of Scarborough.

State police said an investigation is continuing, but Gill is not expected to be charged.

Gill was checked out at the scene by rescue crews and released. Cropper was sent to Maine Medical Center on Brighton Avenue to be checked out, but had not apparent injuries.

State police said both cars had to be towed from the scene, but a sergeant termed the damage “relatively minor” compared to what might have happened if the accident hadn’t involved a police cruiser.