WOOLWICH — A tractor-trailer truck crashed into water along Route 1 early Thursday morning.
The crash was reported at 5:39 a.m. The truck was traveling north on Route 1 when it appears the driver fell asleep and went off the road into the dike.
The driver, 60 year-old Steven Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, was trapped until rescued by boat, according to a press release.
Brown was taken to Mid Coast Hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, according to Woolwich Fire Chief Michael Demers.
The tractor trailer is registered to Medline Inc. and was transporting medical supplies.
Speed and alcohol don’t appear to be factors in the crash, the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office said. The crash is still under investigation.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Brunswick firefighters were called to the scene to contain and clean up diesel that spilled into the dike, Demers said. He was being transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland as of 10 a.m., according to a Mid Coast spokesperson.
As of 7:50 a.m., Route 1 traffic was moving slowly but freely in both lanes.
A fatal crash on the same stretch of Route 1 in July raised a red flag for a Woolwich legislator. On July 15, William Young, 55, of Topsham, was driving a GMC Penske cargo van north on Route 1 when the vehicle crossed the centerline and crashed into three southbound vehicles, according to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office. Fifteen days later, 57-year-old Barry Wyman died from injuries he suffered in the crash.
According to the Department of Transportation, as of July there had been 94 crashes over the last five years within a 2-mile stretch north of the Sagadahoc Bridge.
A principal arterial highway, this stretch of Route 1 sees about 18,000 vehicles pass through day, with large spikes in traffic around Bath Iron Works shift changes.
“It’s not a high crash area by our standards,” said Paul Merrill, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, after the July crash.
After the fatal July crash, Maine House member and Woolwich Selectwoman Allison Hepler said she wants the transportation department to conduct a traffic safety audit. Hepler said the board supported her request to at least have the department look at traffic safety in the area.
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