AUGUSTA — A Maine State Police detective “failed to yield the right-of-way” before his vehicle struck an Augusta woman, who was taking “no improper action” when crossing Caldwell Road Tuesday, according to a state police crash report.

Neither Detective Ryan Brockway, 45, of Winslow, nor Theresa Fitzgerald, 27, will face any charges as a result of the accident.

Fitzgerald, who said she is currently homeless and walks around the city, told the Kennebec Journal on Wednesday she was anxious to be around cars after the incident. She said she took issue with the characterization of her injuries in a Tuesday Kennebec Journal report as “minor.” They were mostly muscular, Fitzgerald said, adding she has a follow-up appointment for her injuries Thursday.

“To me, they’re not minor because it hurts a lot,” she said. “To them, it was minor because I wasn’t knocked to the ground. I put my arms out on the car and he still kept going and my arms went with the car. There are no broken bones. The pain is from my hand to my shoulder now.”

She said the driver of the vehicle was the only person that spoke with her at the scene before an ambulance took her to the hospital. She said he asked her “a couple of questions” and didn’t tell her if he was logging it as her statement. After her interaction with the officer, Fitzgerald said she was handed insurance information and then taken to the hospital.

“He dumped me in an ambulance and that was the last I saw of the officer (that hit me with a car),” she said. “He asked me a few questions. I don’t think any other officers showed up.”

Steve McCausland, spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety, said at least three officers were on the scene but did not know if additional police personnel spoke with her before she was taken to the hospital. The crash report was filed by Specialist Patrick Munzing and approved by Specialist Michael Pion. Munzing was not immediately available for comment Wednesday.

The crash report states an unmarked car driven by Brockway was stopped on Caldwell Road, at the intersection with Stone Street.  It states that Brockway “looked both ways but did not see a pedestrian approaching from the operator’s right.” Fitzgerald, according to the report, said “she saw (Brockway) look both ways and believed the operator saw her and proceeded to cross Caldwell Road” in front of the vehicle.

As Brockway began a right turn, the report states, Fitzgerald was in front of the car. She reportedly braced for “low speed impact” using her hands, “which resulted in injuries to her wrist,” and “did not fall as a result of the impact.”

Fitzgerald said she asked to see dashboard camera footage but was told the detective did not have one in his car. McCausland confirmed that the vehicle did not have a dashboard camera, because it was an unmarked vehicle and only patrol cars have cameras.

Augusta Police Deputy Chief Kevin Lully said officers from his agency “arrived and met with (State Police)” at the scene and were “advised (State Police) would investigate it.”

McCausland said it was customary for State Police to investigate accidents involving state-owned vehicles insured through the Risk Management division of the Office of the State Controller.

A representative from the Office of the State Controller was not available by press time.

There is no crosswalk across Caldwell Road, according to the report. Lully said the department has responded to four vehicle-on-vehicle crashes at the intersection, but Tuesday’s accident is the only vehicle-pedestrian crash it has on record. Based on that information, Lully said he could not conclude if the intersection is more dangerous than any other in the city.

According to the Maine Department of Transportation’s Maine Public Crash Query Tool, there have been 105 crashes involving pedestrians in Augusta from 2008 to 2018. None of those crashes happened near the intersection of Caldwell Road and Stone Street.

McCausland said he didn’t know the last time a state police vehicle hit a pedestrian. When asked if a department vehicle hitting a pedestrian was uncommon, McCausland said statistics show that pedestrian crashes, while serious, are outnumbered by single-vehicle and multiple-vehicle crashes. Transportation department data from Augusta backs up that statement; in Augusta, from 2008 to 2018, more than 1,400 cars have gone off the road, more than 4,800 have been rear-ended, more than 2,100 have been caused by “intersection movement” and 183 have been hit head-on.

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