Students involved in the crash were wearing seat belts and escaped serious harm.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – A van filled with five Oxford Hills Christian Academy students collided head-on with another van on Main Street Friday, sending all but one of the eight people involved to area hospitals. No one appeared to be seriously injured, according to police.

Paris police Cpl. Mike Dailey said Friday night that academy driver Roberto Gonzalez, 41, of 293 Country Club Road in Norway apparently was distracted by events in his van and drifted into the oncoming lane.

“He doesn’t remember a whole lot,” Dailey said after speaking with Gonzalez late Friday. “He remembers driving north on Main Street,” seeing a male student in the front seat bend down to pick up a CD, and he remembers turning around to look at a girl who had been sick most of the trip, the officer said.

Gonzalez’s van missed a Snap-on Tools truck stopped in the center turning lane and then crossed into the southbound lane where it crashed head-on into another van.

Eyewitnesses reported that Bonnie Hall, 48, of Allen Hill Road in Oxford, traveling with her daughter Sarah, 14, had time only to honk the horn of her 1995 Ford Windstar before she was hit. Both were wearing seatbelts.

“He doesn’t even remember seeing the truck,” Dailey said.

The truck, also headed north as Gonzalez was, was about to turn into Bessey Motor Sales when the 3 p.m. crash occurred, drawing a large crowd of onlookers who heard the collision.

“I was just getting ready to turn in and sell some tools,” said Snap-on driver Chris Beal, 22, of Richmond, who stood by his truck as rescue workers assisted the injured in getting transported to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway.

Dailey said Gonzalez told him Main Street was pretty congested at the time and “he was just following the traffic.”

“At 3 o’clock in the afternoon it is pretty heavy there,” Dailey said.

Several students said Gonzalez, who was returning the students to the academy at 1 Park St. in Paris from a class function in North Conway, N.H., had been driving somewhat erratically, passing other vehicles, well before the accident occurred, Dailey said.

“He did indicate that he did make a couple of passes on Route 117 in Bridgton,” including one car going 20 mph in a 50,” the corporal said. “He said he was waiting until there was a straight stretch,” and “he indicated he was very cautious when he made the pass.”

Dailey said Gonzalez also told him he was not wearing a seat belt because he stopped at the state rest area on Route 117 by Norway Lake because of the sick girl and when he took off again he didn’t buckle up.

Gonzalez had to be extricated from the 1997 Dodge Caravan and airlifted to Central Maine Medical Center by a helicopter that landed in the nearby Gouin Athletic Complex off Alpine Street. Dailey said Gonzalez suffered chest injuries. He was treated and released Friday night.

“He’s pretty sore, pretty bumped up,” Dailey said of Gonzalez after meeting with him Friday night.

Academy students involved in the crash were Mary-Beth Hoover, 14, of Bryant Pond; Joshua Parsons, 16, of Paris; Elizabeth Hanson, 14, of Paris; Thomas Hutchins, 15, of Paris; and Elizabeth Caron, 15, of Auburn. Dailey said the students complained of neck, back and shoulder pain. All were wearing seat belts, Dailey said.

SMH officials declined to release information on the students or Sarah Hall, citing confidentiality rules for juveniles.

Parsons was the only student who did not require ambulance transport, Dailey said.

The Gonzalez van, registered to Roberto and his wife, Chelsey, was considered a total loss with $6,000 damage. Hall’s van was also considered a total loss, Dailey said.

Paris police Patrolman Raymond Parr conducted the initial investigation, with Dailey doing the reconstruction of the accident.

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