OXFORD — A Massachusetts teen was seriously injured Tuesday afternoon when his car drifted across Route 26 and plowed into the back of a dump truck driven by a Waterford woman. An investigator said it appears he may have fallen asleep.

William Chandler, 18, of Topsfield, Mass., was taken by ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston with what
appeared to be a lower leg fracture, Oxford fire Chief Scott Hunter and Paris police Lt. Michael Dailey said. Information on his condition was not available Tuesday evening.

Chandler’s passenger, Andrew Dooley, 20, was not
injured in the 2:30 p.m. crash just north of the intersection of Skeetfield Road. The highway was closed for nearly two hours.

The driver of the truck was identified as Jolene Dudley, 51, of
Waterford. She was taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway as a
precaution, Hunter said. A nursing supervisor said Tuesday night that she was treated and release.

Dudley was driving an Oxford Hills Technical School truck as a student. She was accompanied by an instructor, whose name wasn’t immediately available. That person was not hurt, officials said.

The Paris school offers a course for drivers who want to
learn how to drive large trucks and obtain Class A and/or Class B commercial driver’s licenses.

Dailey, the accident reconstructionist, said Chandler’s 2004 Mazda was southbound and crossed the centerline, hitting the
rear driver’s side of the 1989 International dump truck. The collision ripped the axle off the truck and spun the
car counterclockwise almost 180 degrees and onto the
shoulder of the southbound lane. The roof of the car had to be ripped off to get Chandler out, Hunter said.

Dailey said early information indicates Chandler may have fallen asleep. Ski gear was inside the
car, suggesting the pair had been skiing, Hunter and Dailey said.

This is the second serious accident that may have been caused by
fatigued drivers coming down Route 26 after a day of skiing. A Naples
man was killed Nov. 23 in West Paris when a Massachusetts woman headed home on Route 26 after a day of skiing in Newry also apparently
fell asleep at the wheel, causing a collision that
killed Richard Ray of Naples.

Dailey said drivers should remember if they are fatigued to pull over and rest and not risk injuring someone.

Hunter said rescue workers from Oxford, Norway and Paris initially
called for a medical helicopter but none were available and the driver
was taken by ambulance to the Lewiston hospital.

The road was reopened for traffic about 4:30 p.m.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

Firefighters cut the top off a car that struck a dump truck on Route 26 in Oxford on Tuesday afternoon. William Chandler, 18, of Topsfield, Mass., was seriously injured when his car crossed the centerline and hit the Oxford Hills Technical School truck driven by Jolene Dudley, 51, of Waterford, police said.

A police officer talks with Jolene Dudley of Waterford after a car struck the back of the dump truck she was driving on Route 26 in Oxford on Tuesday afternoon, ripping the rear axle off. William
Chandler, 18, of Topsfield, Mass., was seriously injured when his car
crossed the centerline and hit the Oxford Hills Technical School truck, police said.

Firefighters cut the top off a car that
struck a dump truck on Route 26 in Oxford on Tuesday afternoon. William
Chandler, 18, of Topsfield, Mass., was seriously injured when his car
crossed the centerline and hit the Oxford Hills Technical School truck
driven by Jolene Dudley, 51, of Waterford, police said.

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