WINTERPORT, Maine — A Belfast native who lives in Bangor and was involved in a Thursday morning motorcycle collision with a pickup truck on the Back Winterport Road was still at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, his family said Monday.
Tyler Tran, 19, was listed in critical condition on Monday, a spokeswoman from EMMC said.
Tran was injured during a crash that occurred just before 8 a.m. Thursday at the junction of Back Winterport Road and Cove Road in Winterport, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said later in the day.
“He is still sedated,” Tran’s sister-in-law Katrina Petersen Larrabee said Monday in a text message. “He was wearing a helmet, jacket, and gloves. He has some internal organ damage and a couple broken bones, but he will recover. The helmet saved his life.”
Tran grew up in Belfast and played football for the Lions. He moved to Bangor when he enrolled at Husson University and played for the Eagles this past season, she said. He works at Larrabee Property Company, a business owned by Larrabee and her husband, Christopher.
“We are asking that people not visit right now so he can rest and heal, but they can send cards to Tyler Tran, 996 Moody Mountain Road, Searsmont, Maine 04973,” Larrabee said.
Tran had surgery to remove one kidney and his spleen, and he has a broken rib but luckily no head injuries or spinal injuries, his friend Asa Lewis of Belfast said in the GoFundMe account he set up to help Tran pay his medical bills.
Lewis and Tran have know each other since elementary school and continue to play sports and ski together.
“The accident happened at a questionable intersection in Winterport and it was a no fault accident,” Lewis said Monday by text message. “He was hit by a truck and thrown from his bike. He sustained a broken rib, a broken arm, lost his kidney, spleen, and is now on the mend from pneumonia. He has a long road ahead of him, but we hope he recovers fully.”
Trooper Jeffery Parks is handling the investigation for the Maine State Police.