The cause of a September car accident that killed a Hartland woman as she returned from a birthday party with three children in the car was likely because of speed and alcohol, police said Friday.
The Sept. 27 accident on Raymond Road killed 29-year-old Aimee Lasco as she was driving home from a birthday party with her two daughters and a friend’s daughter in the car. Neighbors found the children wandering on the road shortly after the crash.
Trooper John York of the Maine State Police said Friday that the investigation into the crash is finished, and the cause is believed to have been speed and alcohol.
The speed limit in the area is 45 mph. Based on the impact of the crash and tire marks on the road, police believe Lasco was going faster than that, York said.
The accident was not reconstructed because there is no prosecution in the case, he said.
Police also found alcohol in Lasco’s system and believe it was a contributing factor, York said. He said her blood alcohol level was 0.071, which is less than the legal driving limit of 0.08, but alcohol is still believed to have contributed to the accident.
Lasco was driving her daughters Ryleigh, 7, and Ava, 4, and their friend Isabella Morse, 5, home to Hartland from a birthday party at the Palmyra Community Center on U.S. Route 2 when the car went off the road and hit a tree. The road was a back route to get back to Hartland.
The three children were injured in the crash, but none of the injuries was life-threatening.
After the accident, the girls climbed out of the wreckage and wandered about a half-mile up the road to a house to seek help.
A passerby told Jessica Robinson, a friend of Lasco who lived nearby, about the girls, and she went to them and comforted them until help arrived.
The day after the crash at the scene of the accident, Robinson told the Morning Sentinel that Ryleigh said that just before the crash “it got really bumpy and Mommy couldn’t stop.”
Robinson said Ryleigh told her, “I tried to wake Mama up, and Mama said, ‘I’m tired’ and she couldn’t wake up.” Robinson added, “She said, ‘I know Mama’s dead.'”
Robinson, who said she had worked with mentally challenged adults, been trained in first aid and had some medical knowledge, said at the time, “The kids were very, very shaken up, but very, very brave children. … The three little girls were the bravest young girls I have ever, ever seen. It was easy to calm them down and for me to get information. Ryleigh was very worried about her mother, but very helpful. She was very motherly to the other children.”
Lasco, a 2004 graduate of Nokomis High School in Newport, was described by Robinson and other friends as a loving mother.
Teandra Smith, 48, of St. Albans, another friend, said at the scene the day after the crash that Lasco “was bubbly and full of energy and you would just know when she talked to her kids that she loved them very, very much.”
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.