PERSONNEL WORK to remove the vehicle involved in Sunday’s accident on Interstate 295 in Bowdoinham. Traffic was reduced to one lane for about three hours.
A mother and daughter from Massachusetts were taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland after their car rolled over along Interstate 295 in Bowdoinham on Sunday afternoon.
The little girl is in critical condition today, according to a hospital spokesperson, and her mother remains in satisfactory condition.
Maine State Police Trooper Niles Krech was headed home after his shift and the crash happened right in front of him at around 3:30 p.m. by mile marker 37 southbound near the Bowdoinham exit.
Krech said he saw several vehicles pull off to the right side of the road and start pointing to the opposite side of the road where the car, a Honda Accord, had rolled over.
“There were multiple people on scene with me helping out,” said Krech, at the single-vehicle crash.
The female driver, who had a 9-year-old daughter in the back seat, drove off to the right side of the road, Krech said, tried to correct but overcorrected, crossed both lanes of traffic and ended up going off the left side of the roadway where the car rolled over.
“Both mother and daughter were initially entrapped,” Krech said, “but we were able to get out (the mother) before rescue arrived and then once rescue arrived, we were able to get the daughter out as well.”
The driver, Angela Andrade, 39, is from Massachusetts.
Krech said one witness stated they thought Andrade had turned around, possibly to look at the child, which may have caused her to initially drive off the road. But police were still investigating the cause of the crash. Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said today police do believe the driver reaching into the backseat was a contributing factor that caused her to lose control.
Andrade was conscious on scene, Krech said. The 9-year-old girl sustained a possible head injury and was not responsive after the crash but was breathing, Krech said, and was taken to Maine Medical Center.
Brunswick Police Department’s crash reconstruction team was on scene mapping the crash.
Bowdoinham, Bowdoin and Richmond fire departments responded. Traffic was reduced to one lane for about three hours.
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