PERU – A Mexico bicyclist who failed to stop at a stop sign Tuesday afternoon was injured after being struck by a car on Main Street.

Clayton Miller, 15, was treated for a leg injury and released from Rumford Hospital sometime after the 2:35 p.m. accident, according to Rumford Sgt. David Bean, who investigated.

Bean said Miller rode off Veterans Street into the path of a 2005 Pontiac station wagon driven by Karen Holland, 48, of Peru, who was headed south on Main Street.

Holland had just rounded a wooded corner and struck Miller, knocking him off his 20-inch BMX-type bicycle near Peru Elementary School.

“He came out of a side street and said he didn’t see the Holland vehicle. There are a lot of trees there and, he said he glanced through them and didn’t see anything coming,” Bean said.

Bean said Miller, who wasn’t wearing a bicycle helmet, suffered a left ankle injury and was taken by Med-Care Ambulance to Rumford Hospital.

Holland was not injured, but the station wagon sustained an estimated $1,000 damage, Bean said.

“It had a cracked bumper cowling, and those things are expensive to replace,” he said.

The bicycle had minor damage, if that, Bean said.

Bean handled the incident because Holland is the wife of Oxford County Deputy Sgt. Timothy Holland. Normally, the Maine State Police would have investigated an accident involving a deputy’s wife, but the nearest trooper was an hour away, so, Bean was asked to respond, he said.

Because Maine doesn’t require youngsters to wear helmets when riding bicycles, Bean said he was worried about what he’d find on arrival.

“When I was headed there, I had all kinds of visions of a little kid lying in the road. We go around and encourage them to wear helmets, but it’s not mandatory,” Bean added.

Timothy Holland, who is also an assistant fire chief for Peru, was off duty from his police job at the time and at the couple’s nearby home when his wife called him to report the accident. He, in turn, contacted emergency officials and responded with Peru firefighters.

“She was shaken, but not injured,” Timothy Holland said.