GREENE – What sounded like a serious hit-and-run accident Thursday night on Allen Pond Road instead turned out to be a case of teenage hijinks, a police investigator said.
A 17-year-old Turner boy was arrested on a charge of drunken driving, and his 19-year-old friend was treated for injuries suffered when he jumped from a moving truck.
Maine State Police Trooper Ricci Cote said the initial report was that 19-year-old Kevin Philbrook had been run over by a GMC pickup truck after he was found in a daze on Allen Pond Road about 9:15 p.m.
Philbrook denied he had been struck by a truck, he said. He said he had simply fallen down.
“He was in the middle of a rural road,” Cote said. “He was lying to us, basically. He didn’t want his friend to get into trouble.”
Witnesses reported seeing the GMC driving away shortly after Philbrook was spotted in the road, Cote said. That’s what led to initial reports that a man had been run over.
“We thought we had a serious accident,” Cote said.
Once it was learned Philbrook had jumped from the GMC, police began searching for the driver of that truck. He was found a short distance away and charged with driving while intoxicated, Cote said. The 17-year-old had a blood-alcohol level of .13, he said.
The legal limit in Maine is .08 percent.
Philbrook was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where he was treated for scrapes to his forehead and later released.
His 17-year-old friend was booked while police searched for his parents to notify them about the arrest.
The incident remained under investigation early today. Cote said he still did not know why Philbrook decided to jump from a moving truck on a night with temperatures in the single digits.
“That remains unclear,” Cote said.
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