TRENTON, Maine — A Bucksport man was hospitalized Tuesday after a car he was riding in crashed into the back of a dump truck on Route 3, according to the Maine State Police.
The windshield on the car had not been properly cleaned, which made it difficult for the driver of the car to see through it, Trooper Jacob Ferland said. The windshield, dirtied by spray kicked up from the wet road by moving vehicles, and the glaring sun are believed to be the primary factors in the accident, Ferland said.
Richard Gainer, 29, of Bucksport was riding in a 1999 Chevrolet Prizm at around 10:45 a.m. when the accident occurred. Both vehicles were traveling toward Mount Desert Island when the dump truck, carrying a load of gravel, slowed to turn right onto a private drive, Ferland said.
Gainer suffered unspecified “serious” injuries in the accident, police said, and was brought to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for treatment.
Gainer and the two other people in the car — driver Brandon Tracy, 18, and fellow passenger Derek Pomeroy, 27, both of Bucksport — were not wearing seat belts during the collision, police noted. Tracy and Pomeroy suffered minor injuries in the accident, Ferland said.
Air bags were deployed in the Prizm, which was demolished in the collision, the trooper said. The driver of the dump truck, Chauncey Hooper, 67, of Franklin, was wearing a seat belt and was uninjured, he added.
The crash is still under investigation for possible criminal charges, according to Ferland.
