Four people were taken to two different hospitals following a four-vehicle accident Monday morning in the southbound lanes of the Maine Turnpike in Litchfield.
Maine State Police Trooper Bill Baker said it appeared most of those involved escaped more serious injury because they were all wearing seatbelts.
Baker said the crash occurred about 9:50 a.m. as a Volvo driven by Kirsten Flewelling, 21, of Dover-Foxcroft, hit a snowdrift in the passing lane and rolled over.
A second vehicle tried to avoid Flewelling’s vehicle and was T-boned by a third vehicle. The driver of a fourth vehicle saw the crash and was able to avoid striking the other vehicles by driving off the road and into a snowbank.
Flewelling was able to escape her overturned vehicle by squeezing out a window, Baker said. She was taken to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, where a spokeswoman said she was treated and released.
Timothy Sutherburg, 46, of Gorham, a passenger in the second vehicle, a Honda CRV driven by Cindy Rounds, 36, of Gorham, was knocked unconscious and suffered a shoulder injury, Baker said. Both were taken to Central Maine Medical Center where they were treated and discharged, according to a spokeswoman.
A 7-year-old in that same vehicle escaped injury, Baker said.
One other person was sent to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston as well. On Monday afternoon Baker said he was still gathering information about the third vehicle. The driver of the fourth vehicle was able to drive away once his vehicle was removed from the snowbank.
Baker said the crash was caused by the weather and by driving too fast for conditions. “They’ve got warnings posted about the drifting snow,” he said. “She wasn’t able to slow down in time. People get complacent because the roads are all dry until they hit the snowdrifts.”
Baker said units from Gardiner and Augusta and Litchfield Fire & Rescue responded to the Litchfield crash as did United Ambulance. The collision closed the southbound lanes for about an hour while rescuers attended to the injured and removed the vehicles.
Two hours later Baker responded to a similar crash where a woman’s vehicle hit a snowdrift and struck both sides of a snowbank near mile marker 95 also of the Turnpike. She was able to drive away, he said.
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