Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

August 9, 2012

Dispatches

Maine pharmacist gets prison for taking kickbacks / Boy, 4, dies from injuries in ATV crash / Gorham OKs new rules limiting fireworks ... and more news from around the state.

SHIN POND

Boy, 4, dies from injuries incurred in ATV flip-over

The Maine Warden Service says a 4-year-old boy injured while riding an ATV has died.

Investigators believe Tanner Morse was riding up an incline when the small all-terrain vehicle tumbled backward onto him Monday evening near his grandfather's home in Shin Pond. He was seen wearing a helmet earlier but the helmet was off when he was found by his father.

The youngster from Searsport was flown via LifeFlight helicopter to a Bangor hospital. Cpl. John MacDonald, Warden Service spokesman, says the boy died Tuesday evening.

Maine law forbids children under 10 from operating an ATV but there's an exception if they're on land owned or leased by their parents. In this case, MacDonald says the boy was operating on land owned by the grandfather. The case remains under review.

NAPLES

ATV crash kills woman, 24; companion in 'fair condition'

A woman was killed and a man suffered serious injuries in an ATV crash Wednesday morning.

The man and the woman were riding on an ATV on River Road just before 5 a.m. when the ATV left the road, flew into some trees, then flipped, coming to rest in the Crooked River, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Shanan Loud, 24, of Naples was pronounced dead at the scene. Johnathan Caswell, 28, of Naples was taken to Bridgton Hospital and then taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center. He is in fair condition, a spokeswoman said.

A second ATV, also carrying a man and a woman, was not involved. Deputies interviewed the woman but the man had left the scene by the time authorities arrived, the sheriff's office said.

Speed and alcohol appeared to contribute to the crash, the sheriff's office said. Neither Loud nor Caswell was wearing a helmet.

Police said they have not determined who was driving.

Loud and Caswell recently moved to Naples. She is originally from Hiram and he is from Randolph.

SCARBOROUGH

Truck hits utility pole, cuts power to traffic lights

Police are investigating the cause of a tractor-trailer accident that knocked out electricity and traffic lights in a heavily traveled area near the Maine Mall on Wednesday.

Police said the truck hit a utility pole near the Lowe's Home Improvement store at Gallery Boulevard and Mussey Road around 5 p.m.

A police dispatcher said the accident knocked out power to a set of traffic lights on Payne Road. Central Maine Power Co. reported that about 360 customers lost power.

PORTLAND

Democrats' gay marriage plank pleases candidate

U.S. Senate candidate Cynthia Dill praised fellow Democrats on Wednesday for including support for gay marriage in the proposed national platform.

Dill, a longtime marriage equality supporter, said she will also work to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act if elected.

"For the first time, a sitting president has declared his support for gay marriage," Dill said, according to a statement distributed following the event. "And for the first time a major political party -- the Democratic Party -- has decided to include marriage equality in its draft national platform. This is significant, this is important and it will have a positive impact on the lives of our children, and for the people of this country going forward."

Dill's major opponents are divided on the issue. Republican Charlie Summers, Maine's secretary of state, opposes gay marriage; and independent Angus King, a former governor, supports it. Democrats will gather next month in Charlotte, N.C., to consider the party platform.

(Continued on page 2)

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