PERU – State police, seeking to curb an outbreak of crashes involving underage drinkers and speed in Peru, may soon increase their presence.
“It’s getting out of control, so we’re going to try to do something about this,” Trooper Daniel Hanson said Tuesday afternoon.
That could mean random operating-under-the-influence roadblocks, extra enforcement patrols or other measures.
“We’ve had three serious accidents involving alcohol with carloads of minors in four weeks, and no one has died. It’s just luck that they’re all alive,” he said.
“I absolutely want to stop one of these kids from getting killed, because my fear is that in the next (crash), we’re going to have to knock on some kid’s parents’ door,” Hanson added.
The third crash happened at 12:05 a.m. Sunday, injuring four young adults and sending three to hospitals.
Hanson said a 1999 Oldsmobile Alero, operated by Jeffrey Waugh, 20, of Peru, nearly crashed into a house owned by Scott and Melanie Babb at 232 Ridge Road. The couple was not home.
“He went off the right side of the road, over-corrected, left the roadway, struck a culvert in a ditch and rolled the truck over a couple of times until it came to rest on the passenger side in the dooryard,” he said.
Waugh, a Marine just home on leave from the war in Iraq, suffered mild head injuries. His passengers were Jennifer Buotte, 20, of Rumford; Bruce Cox, 20, of Peru; and Jillian Fwrberg, 21, of Andover.
Buotte, who owned the car, had minor injuries. Cox, who was ejected, suffered minor bleeding and back abrasions. Fwrberg complained of pain in a leg, but refused treatment by Med-Care Ambulance medics, Hanson said.
Neither Waugh nor Cox were wearing safety belts.
Waugh, Buotte and Cox were taken by Med-Care to Rumford Hospital, where Buotte and Cox were treated and released. Waugh, Hanson said, was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston for a minor surgical procedure, and released.
The wreck happened on a straightaway in a 45 mph zone, but “they were traveling south at high speed, well in excess of the posted speed limit,” he said.
Hanson summoned Waugh on Monday for operating under the influence and operating after suspension, the result of a previous OUI conviction.
“The others had been drinking, but the alcohol was not from the 21-year-old. We are researching this, because I absolutely want to know where that alcohol came from,” he said.
Hanson was patrolling in the area, hoping to prevent just such a wreck from happening, when he came across it moments later.
“This is the second week in a row for me. These kids’ parents won’t like seeing their names in the paper, but these parents need to know this stuff’s going on,” he said.
At 1:30 a.m. on Labor Day, three Peru youths were injured when the truck they were in struck a tree on Dickvale Road. Hanson charged the 17-year-old driver with drunken driving.
At the end of August on Dickvale Road, Oxford County police handled a rollover involving youths, speed and alcohol.
“I was in Peru late Sunday night because of last weekend’s crash, and trying to be in the area, because I recognized a problem. But how do we stop something like this with only one of us covering from Canton to Gilead?” Hanson asked.
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