BYRON — A Hampden woman who drove her Audi A6 sport utility vehicle off Garland Pond Road and into the woods early Friday evening was booked three hours later into Oxford County Jail in Paris, police said.
Brianna Torrey, 23, was arrested on charges of operating under the influence and violation of conditions of release, a jail official said late Friday night.
“Alcohol or drugs was involved,” Oxford County Deputy Sheriff Willie Nelson said while holding an empty bottle of vodka from the vehicle. He said Torrey wasn’t injured.
The jail official said that if bail is not allowed, Torrey would spend the weekend behind bars and go before a judge Monday.
Nelson said the accident happened at about 6:40 p.m. about a half mile from the intersection of Route 17. Area police and Maine Game Wardens had just started searching for her when she was found.
“We had a complaint that she left a residence while out of sorts, but whether it means she was drunk or high or having some sort of crisis, I don’t know yet,” Nelson said.
Warden Brock Clukey found Torrey trapped in her SUV that was pinned between trees on its side and radioed Paris dispatchers for a Med-Care ambulance and firefighters with extrication tools.
“She wasn’t mangled in there, she was just stuck,” Nelson said.
Mexico and Rumford firefighters had to cut through trees to get to the heavily-damaged SUV, but they didn’t need extrication tools. Mexico fire Chief Gary Wentzell said they told her to crawl out a window, which she did.
Nelson said Torrey had driven west up the paved Garland Pond Road that all-terrain vehicle riders use frequently, and then reversed direction and veered off the opposite side of the road while descending a hill around a corner.
He said she traveled quite a ways down the edge of woods while riding atop the berm of a drainage ditch before the SUV plunged through small trees. The Audi stopped just shy of a short drop to a brook.
“ATVers use that road all the time and if a family had been riding them up here, she would have killed them all,” Nelson said.
Med-Care took Torrey to Rumford Hospital where Nelson arrested her and drove her to the Paris jail.
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