PITTSFIELD – A funeral home hearse crashed and flipped over “three or four times” Thursday afternoon on Interstate 95 in Pittsfield after its driver apparently fell asleep.

Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said the hearse, which is owned by the Jordan-Fernald Funeral Home in Ellsworth, was transporting a body when the crash occurred around 3:30 p.m. in the highway’s northbound lane.

McCausland said the body remained inside the hearse after the crash. The driver, 55-year-old Michael Kelly of Salisbury Cove, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital with serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

The hearse landed upright after turning over multiple times.

A separate hearse came to pick up and finish transporting the body.


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