LITCHFIELD – A teenager was hurt early Tuesday night after crashing his car into a utility pole in a wreck that knocked out electrical service and led to a brief chase through the woods.

A witness said the teenage boy appeared to have suffered facial cuts and other injuries after driving off Buker Road and striking an embankment and then a utility pole.

The driver fled into the woods shortly before police arrived, said Scott Gooding, who witnessed the crash from his nearby home. The teen was found by police a short time later.

Gooding was standing in his driveway about 6 p.m. when he heard the sounds of screeching tires from further down Buker Road, off Route 126. He turned in time to see the four-door car leave the roadway and the carnage that followed.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Gooding said. “The car hit the embankment and then it bounced up out of the ditch. It struck the pole and split it right in half.”

Gooding ran down to the crash site after asking his wife to call for help, he said. There, he found the driver with cuts, bruises and a fat lip as he stumbled near his car. The windshield of the car was smashed after the front end of the vehicle slammed into the pole, Gooding said.

“He hit the windshield pretty good,” he said. “I told him, you need to sit down. Someone needs to check on you.”

Gooding said he has received training as an emergency medical technician and worried that the driver may have suffered internal injuries and that he might be going into shock. But the driver told Gooding he did not want to talk to police.

“He started to panic and then he took off into the woods,” Gooding said.

Several state police troopers and an officer from Monmouth went to the scene and began searching for the driver, Gooding said. It was later learned that the teen lives nearby and he was found at his home.

Hours later, Maine State Police were still investigating the crash and did not immediately return calls for information. The identity of the driver was not available.

The crash knocked out power to the Route 126 section of Litchfield as well as parts of Monmouth and surrounding areas. Gooding said it was roughly two hours before Central Maine Power crews were able to make repairs and get power restored.