PERU – Two EMTs were hospitalized Sunday night after the Med-Care ambulance they were riding in collided with a tractor-trailer on Route 108.

The driver was taken by ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston with a leg injury and possible internal injuries, according to Capt. James Miclon of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department.

He wouldn’t identify the driver or her passenger pending further investigation and a chance to speak with both, he said. Her passenger, also a woman, was taken by ambulance to Rumford Community Hospital for treatment of facial injuries. Miclon described those wounds as cuts and scrapes.

The truck driver, Frank E. Wilson of Atlantic City, N.J., wasn’t hurt in the accident. When the ambulance struck the trailer, though, the force of the collision caused the trailer to split open.

It was loaded with paper products from MeadWestvaco’s Rumford mill, Miclon said. None of the product spilled onto the snow-covered roadway.

Miclon said investigators determined that the ambulance had cleared a call and were told it was on its way back to its headquarters in Mexico when the accident happened at about 5:50 p.m. He said the ambulance was running with its roof lights flashing and siren sounding an audible warning.

“It had passed one vehicle that had pulled over when it saw the lights flashing,” Miclon said. “It was attempting to pass a second vehicle” when it slid over and struck the tractor-trailer.

The trucker had pulled his rig over toward the side of the highway in an attempt to allow the ambulance to pass, Miclon said.

Miclon said one the questions he has for the driver is why she was running with emergency lights while enroute back to the ambulance headquarters.

He’s also asking that the driver of the vehicle that was being passed by the ambulance contact the sheriff’s office. “We have a few questions” that might help clear up the investigation, Miclon said.

He said the ambulance, a 2000 Ford outfitted for emergency transport with life support capabilities, was a total loss. The truck, owned by Swift Corp. of New Jersey, wasn’t seriously damaged, but the trailer will probably be totaled. Another trailer was brought to the crash scene Sunday night and the cargo was off-loaded from the wrecked trailer.

When first responders arrived, one of the EMTs was trapped in the ambulance and needed help getting out, the captain said.

Miclon said that a state police commercial vehicles unit was called to help in the investigation. A trooper determined that Wilson had exceeded his driving hours for the week by 20 hours. As a result, he wasn’t being allowed to drive the truck from the crash site until he had rested. Other paperwork was in order, Miclon said.

Miclon said a lane of Route 108 was closed for about six hours as a result of the crash and to allow for the transfer of products from one trailer to the other.

He said the state Department of Transportation was plowing and sanding roads in the area Sunday afternoon and evening, but conditions were such that the road was still snow-covered.

Oxford County Deputy Justin Brown is heading up the investigation, Miclon said, assisted by the captain and Sgt. Gary Hill.

dfletcher@sunjournal.com

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