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March 15, 2010

Alcohol, speed, lack of seatbelts
contribute to fatal crash

By David Hench dhench@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

Cumberland County's chief deputy says speed, alcohol and the lack of seatbelts all played a factor in a fatal crash in Standish early Sunday.

click image to enlarge

D'Ann Seidell Bochese, 45, of Windham was killed when the 2007 Subaru Legacy she was driving careened off the road, police say.

Courtesy Cumberland County Sheriff's Office

Sheriff's deputies were called to Oak Hill Road and Serena Lane at 12:20 a.m. for a two-car crash. They found one driver dead, suspended in a tree 40 feet above the car she was driving, said Chief Deputy Kevin Joyce. A passenger in that car also was thrown from the vehicle and ended up alongside a stream with serious injuries.

A second car flipped several times as it tumbled 200 feet over a field before coming to rest on its wheels. Although the driver and two passengers were injured, none of their injuries were critical. The driver, at least, was wearing a seatbelt, deputies said.

The people involved, who knew each other, had recently come from Memory Lane, a nearby club where one of the passengers who was not seriously injured had been refused further service because he was intoxicated, Joyce said.

Investigators also are trying to determine whether that passenger may have contributed to the crash by distracting the driver and fooling around with the emergency brake, Joyce said.

That car, a white 1997 Subaru Legacy, and the one in which the driver was killed, a blue 2007 Subaru Legacy, had been traveling well in excess of the 45 mph speed limit when the blue car attempted to pass and they collided, sending both cars careening off the road, Joyce said.

Killed in the crash was D'Ann Seidell Bochese, 45, of Windham.

The driver of the white Subaru, Tyler Gordon, 22, of Standish, was wearing a seatbelt, investigators said.

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