Several vehicles were damaged or destroyed Monday morning when a driver who was trying to pull into a parking spot at the Meadow Brook Plaza, a busy shopping center on Route 1 in York, lost control of his sport utility vehicle.

York police said Vaughn M. Kailian, 71, of Kittery Point got trapped in his SUV after hitting a parked car. The impact caused his SUV to turn on its side and caused the parked car to “careen” through the parking lot before hitting another car, police said.

A group of witnesses pushed Kailian’s SUV back onto four wheels, but firefighters had to remove the roof to pull him out of the wreckage. He was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

York police Sgt. Brian Curtin said in a press release that the accident was reported around 9:55 a.m. He said it appears that Kailian’s SUV “quickly accelerated” just before the crash. The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

Firefighters and police “found a very chaotic scene with numerous people and crashed vehicles in the lot,” Curtin said. “The operator of the vehicle was injured and trapped in the car.”


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