By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A 4-year-old girl hurt when a pickup truck slammed into a day-care center Wednesday was released from the hospital a day later.

Chantel Soucy of Lewiston spent a night at Central Maine Medical Center after suffering injuries to her face, shoulder and arm when the truck smashed through a picture window at Donna’s Daycare on Sabattus Street.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital said Thursday that the girl had been released earlier in the day.

Another 4-year-old who was at the day-care center, De’Andre Cunningham of Lewiston, was treated and released from the hospital.

A Litchfield man was charged in the Wednesday morning wreck that injured the two children and caused at least $10,000 damage to the building.

Police said witnesses reported that 27-year-old Carl Dematteo was driving fast on the snow-slicked road when the car slid out of control, flipped and crashed into the day-care center at 977 Sabattus St.

“It’s our belief that this accident could have been easily avoided,” said police Lt. Tom Avery, shortly after Dematteo was summoned for driving to endanger.

One witness told police that Dematteo had been driving close to the rear of her car as the two vehicles drove from Litchfield into Lewiston. Where Sabattus Street spreads into two lanes near the day-care center, Dematteo passed the car in front of him and continued speeding into town, according to a police accident report.

Soon after, the truck crashed into the day-care center, sending glass spraying into the building and knocking down part of a wall, police and witnesses said.

Witnesses at the scene said the 4-year-old girl was partially buried beneath the fallen wall and by fragments of glass and other debris.

A 4-year-old boy from Lewiston was examined for a bruised thumb suffered in the wreck and later released, according to the crash report.

Employees at Donna’s Daycare, owned by Donna Levasseur, said they plan to fix the damaged building. Damage to Dematteo’s Chevrolet 2500 was estimated at $20,000.