HARRISON — Two women were killed in a head-on crash in which a convertible was crushed and a loaded log truck landed on its side in a ditch  on Route 117 Wednesday, police said.

Linda S. Labonte, 63, of Harrison was pronounced dead at the scene. Her mother, Carmen R. Smith, 85, of Harrison was a passenger in the 2007 Ford Mustang. She was taken from the scene by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where she died.

The driver of the logging truck, Jeffery Coffin, 43, of Paris, wasn’t injured

Police say a red convertible traveling south on Route 117 crossed the centerline into the path of the northbound logging truck owned by Coffin Trucking Inc. of West Paris. The driver of the truck tried to avoid the collision; the truck left the road and crashed on a section of 117 between Upton Road and Plains Road.

Police closed the road for hours afterward. A dispatcher at the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department said the highway would remain closed through the night for accident reconstruction and to offload the logs before moving the truck.

Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigators and a crash reconstruction team responded, as well as firefighters from Harrison, Norway, Paris and Oxford. The Department of Environmental Protection was on hand to clean about 180 gallons of diesel fuel that spilled from the wreckage of the truck.

The Maine State Police Commercial Vehicles Unit responded to process the logging truck, as required by law. The cause of the crash was still under investigation.

treaves@sunjournal.com

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