WILTON - The driver of a pickup truck that collided with an ambulance Tuesday night was grabbed from the gas-spewing vehicle after it smashed into Gould's Service Station on routes 2 and 4, witnesses said Wednesday night.

Police identified the driver as 53-year-old William Thibodeau of Farmington, according to the Morning Sentinel newspaper. He was listed in serious condition at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, a nursing supervisor said Wednesday night.

Wilton police Chief Dennis Brown said in a statement issued late Wednesday night that the driver of the 2001 Ford Ranger "will not be identified until a conference with the Franklin County District Attorney's Office" on Thursday. "After this conference, the release of the driver's information will be provided accompanied with criminal charges."

Thibodeau's passenger, Timothy Hastings, 47, of Wilton, and NorthStar employees Tom Doak, 66, of Wilton and Virginia Swan, 46, of Dixfield were treated at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington and released, officials said Wednesday.

Brandon Gould, 21, of Jay said he was alone and getting ready to close his father Danny Gould's station at 8:25 p.m. Tuesday when he heard what "sounded like an explosion" and saw a pickup truck headed right for him in the attendant's booth on the island of four gas pumps.

"I heard the big bang, and I heard a squealing, and could see a blue Ford Ranger coming at me. It was coming right at the booth," he said. "It scared me half to death. I was standing up. I just kind of ducked a little bit."

The truck struck the corner of the 8- by 12-foot enclosure and ricocheted off into a metal post holding up the canopy over the pumps.

"It never touched the gas pump," Brandon said. "It was just revving. He had his foot on the throttle" and gas was pouring out of the punctured tank.

"That's when I knew I had to shut the truck off or something was going to happen. I ran out of the booth and turned the key off in the truck," he said, even though the truck was so close he could have just reached out the booth door and shut it off, he said.

The driver and passenger were both unconscious, Brandon said.

"I went out and shut the key off so it wouldn't catch fire" then went back inside to call 911 and his father, he said.

When he returned to the truck, the passenger was out and staggering around.

"People on the side of the road were screaming at the passenger not to go into the vehicle," because the truck could explode, but "he said he was going to save his friend," Brandon said, so he "pulled him out of the truck down to the road."

"I didn't actually see the accident happen," Brandon said. "I saw lights coming at me. I'm pretty sure the lights were on."

Asked if it was foggy at the time, Brandon said, "Oh my God, you couldn't even hardly see in front of you. It was really thick. When I drove home after the accident, I could hardly see in front of me."

Gould's station is on the southeast corner of the intersection, which has a traffic light that flashes yellow on routes 2 and 4 and red on Route 156. There are also stop signs on both sides of Route 156, the attendant said.

He said it was hard to see the traffic lights Tuesday night due to the dense fog.

He said it appeared the truck was headed east on Route 156 attempting to cross routes 2 and 4.

"The Ranger made it almost by" the ambulance, which was headed south on routes 2 and 4, he said it appeared from the damage. "The rear left quarter of the truck was hit. It broke the rear tire right off, broke the gas tank right in half," he said.

The left part of the axle was up on the curb where the gas pumps are, he said.

The ambulance, he said, landed in the center of the busy highway facing the gas station booth. Minutes later, Doak, a paramedic, turned on the ambulance lights to prevent it from being hit, Brandon said.

The station attendant said Wednesday night that the incident left him trembling.

"I was shaking all night," he said.

Doak said Wednesday night that he was driving the ambulance back to Livermore Falls after making a run to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington to restock medications, he said.

"It wasn't particularly foggy," Doak said in a phone interview from his home.

"The pickup did not have lights on and did not stop at the stop sign. That's what we saw," he said.

Doak said Swan told him, "'He's not stopping.' And I saw him brake, and we hit the pickup in the side with the front of the ambulance."

After the collision, Doak said he and Swan got out of the ambulance and he looked around to see where the truck went.

"I was quite sure he or she were going to be injured. We realized there was gasoline leaking from somewhere ... the passenger from the pickup was shouting something. We were trying to get him to leave. I thought he was the operator," Doak said.

"He was shouting, 'Get him out of there.' I started up to assist with removing the driver from the truck," but then "the passenger grabbed him and dragged him out across the tar of the filling station."

Doak met him and then got a stretcher from the damaged ambulance and waited until another NorthStar vehicle arrived to transport the injured people, he said.

Brown said in his statement Wednesday night that the investigation is continuing, but so far it has determined that the blue 2001 Ford was driven out of a store opposite Gould's Service Station, and the driver and Hastings had been patrons at that unnamed store throughout the day.

"Several witnesses at the scene state the truck was speeding toward Route 2 without the activation of their headlights" and did not stop at the stop sign, Brown wrote.

There was dense fog at the time, the chief said.

The driver did submit to blood alcohol test, he said, and charges are pending.

Damages were estimated at more than $125,000.