WEST PARIS – A Massachusetts man died Wednesday night after the minivan he and his son were in crashed head-on into a car on Route 26 near the Woodstock town line, State Police Trooper Dan Hanson said. The other driver, from Dixfield, was seriously injured.
Peter O’Farrell, 59, of Arlington died in an ambulance en route to a hospital, the investigator said. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision and suffered head and internal injuries, he added.
The driver of the sedan, Gerald Stone, 50, of Dixfield suffered serious injuries and was flown to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. A nursing supervisor said shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday that there was no report on his condition. He reportedly was to undergo surgery, Hanson said.
It took rescuers about 20 minutes to cut the roof off Stone’s Chevrolet Impala and another 10 or 15 minutes to get him out.
O’Farrell’s 15-year-old son, whose name was not released, was treated for minor injuries at Central Maine Medical Center and released to his family, Hanson said. The teenager told police he did not know what caused his father to fail to negotiate and curve and drive into the northbound lane at about 4:30 p.m., the trooper said.
The youth said he was watching a DVD on his laptop computer when the crash occurred as his father drove south to return home from a business trip to Bethel, he added. The boy said his father was not using a cell phone at the time, according to the trooper.
“We’re still trying to determine a cause of why O’Farrell failed to negotiate the turn,” Hanson said. “We’re potentially looking at whether he fell asleep.”
O’Farrell’s 2005 Toyota minivan was demolished, as was Stone’s 2002 Chevrolet.
Hanson was assisted by state police Sgt. Don Shead, Trooper Ethel Ross, reconstructionist Sgt. Rick McAlister, Paris Sgt. Michael Dailey, Oxford County Deputy Josh Wyman, Paris and West Paris firefighters and Tri-Town Rescue and PACE ambulance crews.
Staff writer Rebecca Goldfine contributed to this article.
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