WILTON – A one-car accident on Temple Road Tuesday night left a Farmington woman dead, a Wilton teenager in serious condition and two Jay juveniles injured, police said.

The driver of the car, Timothy Witham, 18, was operating on a driver’s permit and was driving at a “high rate of speed” and lost control of the vehicle before it struck a tree, Wilton officer Kevin McCutcheon said.

Mary J. McDonald, 21, of Farmington formerly of Bingham, was riding in the front passenger seat and died at the scene, Wilton officer Kevin McCutcheon said.

McDonald was alive when police arrived at the scene but was pronounced dead after she was extricated from the Ford Taurus station wagon, the officer said.

Witham received head and chest injuries, McCutcheon said, and was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. He was listed in serious condition Wednesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ryan Nuzzo, 14, and Marc Latham, 17, both of Jay, were passengers riding in the back of the vehicle, Chief James Parker said.

The boys were taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington, treated and released, McCutcheon said.

McCutcheon said witnesses in the vehicle said that Witham was driving at “better than 70 miles per hour, and that is a 35-mile-per-hour road.”

Witham lost control when he crested the road, and the car went to the opposite side of road in the left ditch, McCutcheon said.

“When the two left tires started to skid, he panicked and overcorrected, pulling the car to the right ditch,” he said.

The car then hit a culvert hole and snowbank, caught the vehicle and flipped it onto its roof, and it struck a tree, he said. The tree was clipped off, and that flipped the car back onto its wheels, McCutcheon said.

Parker and Wilton officer Ed Leahy assisted McCutcheon at the scene of the 5:22 p.m. accident. Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies, Farmington police, Wilton Fire Department and LifeStar ambulance crews also responded to the accident.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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