At the end of the year, we take a look at the 10 most popular videos posted on SunJournal.com in 2011:

At the end of the year, we take a look at the 10 most popular videos posted on SunJournal.com in 2011:

10. SUV lands nose-first in canal beside Lisbon Street; driver escapes with minor injuries

In October, a woman driving a white SUV toward downtown lost control of her vehicle and it nose-dived into the canal next to Grimmel’s Auto Body shop. The woman escaped the accident without injury.

At the end of the year, we take a look at the 10 most popular videos posted on SunJournal.com in 2011:

Top videos

1. 2011 Wife Carry Championship     29034
2. Lewiston assault     28699
3. Bates College-Puddle Jump     6828
4. Lisbon Falls fire     5824
5. Oct. 25 house-trailer accident on Route 4     5125
6. iPads for kindergarteners in Auburn     4316
7. Redneck Olympics     3781
8. Arrest follows L-A chase and shooting     3367
9. Danielle “”Dani”” Ranger 1994-2011     3296
10. SUV lands in Lisbon Street canal     3125
11. Explosion mars near perfect day at balloon festival     2793

9. Bells toll for Dixfield teen

About 50 local fire, EMS and police departments participated in the march from the Dixfield Fire Station on Main Street to the Dirigo High School gymnasium to honor 16-year-old Dani Ranger, a junior at Dirigo High School who died in an Oct. 15 car crash. Ranger served as a junior firefighter for the Dixfield Fire Co. and was a member of the Western Foothills Junior Firefighter Program.

8. Stolen car crashes; several shots fired after chase; arrest ends standoff

Two men were taken into custody in November after a car chase, a standoff, an officer was run down and one man was shot. 

The driver, Richard Thorpe, 30, of Norway and passenger, Kyle Corey, 43, of Portland were taken to Central Maine Medical Center for treatment. Thorpe was later charged with two felonies, eluding a police officer and theft. He also was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and refusing to submit to arrest.

7. Redneck Olympians get dirty, have fun

Hundreds came to party at the Redneck Olympics in early August. Aside from the beer, the mud runs and the lawnmower racing, the games were rowdy, funny and accompanied by cheering and laughter.

6. Auburn kindergartners get iPads

Confident that the iPads will help close learning gaps among kindergarten students, the Auburn School Committee voted in April to give every kindergartner an iPad 2 this year. Despite opposition from some taxpayers, half of the kindergarten students got them in September and the other half in mid-November.

5. Crash closes Route 4 in Auburn

A Sabattus man was injured in October when his Chevrolet pickup drifted across Route 4 north of Lake Auburn and into an oncoming tractor-trailer. The tracker-trailer driver lost control and crashed into a house, spilling diesel fuel within sight of the lake’s shore.

4. Intense fire foiled efforts to save sisters

A simple battery could have saved the lives of two sisters killed in a morning fire in March on Summer Street in Lisbon. Sisters Natalie Hogan, 11, and Kelsey Hogan, 6, trapped in their bedroom, perished in the blaze.

3. Bates Puddle Jump

At the Bates College annual puddle jump in January students drill a hole in the ice at Lake Andrews, then quickly dunk in the freezing cold water.

2. Alleged Lewiston assault ends in arrest

A registered sex offender faces years in prison after his videotaped street arrest in the alleged beating and choking of his wife and the assault of two teenage boys who came to her rescue at her 114 College St. home in August.

1. Maine couple wins wife carrying championship in Newry

Rocco Andreozzi and partner Kim Wasko expected the competition to be tough, but knowing their adversaries may have improved their odds. Andreozzi and Wasko of Bethel took first place at Sunday River’s 12th annual North American Wife Carrying Championship at Sunday River Ski Resort in October. They finished the final run with a time of 49.64 seconds, shaving off 12.27 seconds from their winning time last year.

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