Excessive speed is believed to have been a factor in the one-car crash on Commercial Street early Wednesday morning that killed a 30-year-old Old Orchard Beach woman, police said Thursday.
Rachel Schwartz was pronounced dead at the scene after her 2009 Honda Fit slammed into a telephone pole about 1:45 a.m. Preliminary investigation shows she died as a result of blunt-force trauma from the impact, Portland police Assistant Chief Vern Malloch said.
He said excessive speed appears to be one factor in the crash, but declined to specify how fast Schwartz was traveling at the time of the impact. Schwartz was wearing her seatbelt at the time of the wreck.
Malloch said a witness who saw Schwartz driving on Commercial Street has contacted police, but Malloch declined to comment on that witness’s characterization of how she was driving.
Toxicology tests that will be performed by the State Medical Examiner’s Office are pending, so Malloch did not know whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.
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