A 67-year-old Denmark man was badly injured when a passing tractor-trailer caused him to lose control of his bicycle and crash on Route 302 in Fryeburg on Thursday afternoon.

Bradford Lanoue was riding west down Hapgood Hill when the westbound truck passed him, Fryeburg acting Police Chief Joshua Potvin said in a press release. The truck startled the rider and the swirling wind created by the passing truck contributed to the cyclist losing control, Potvin said.

Lanoue went off the road and was thrown from his bicycle when it crashed into some shrubs.

Lanoue was taken to Bridgton Hospital then transferred by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center.

The truck did not stop and its driver was not identified, Potvin said. A witness reported that the truck was more than the required three feet from the cyclist, the release said.

“We have no reason to believe that the tractor-trailer truck operator would have even known about the bicyclist crashing behind him due to the curve in the roadway,” Potvin said. “Although the crash is still under investigation it appears that there are no pending charges at this time.”

Potvin said the stretch of road there does not have a good shoulder and Lanoue was not wearing a helmet.

A year ago, at the outset of the annual Trek Across Maine bicycle fundraiser, a Watertown, Massachusetts, man was killed in the Oxford County town of Hanover after the air turbulence from a passing truck caused him to crash.


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