A car driven by Caleb Ewing, 29, of Caribou was destroyed Thursday morning on the Maine Turnpike in Kittery. Ewing was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.  Maine State Police photo

An Auburn man escaped injury in an early-morning crash Thursday on the Maine Turnpike in Kittery where a Caribou man died, police said.

Maine Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Shannon Moss wrote in a media statement that police are continuing to investigate the 12:37 a.m. crash, involving a passenger car and a tractor-trailer truck at Mile 2 in the southbound lane in Kittery.

The car was driven by Caleb Ewing, 29, of Caribou, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The truck was owned and driven by Joshua Stone, 46, of Auburn.

Both vehicles sustained “extensive damage,” Moss wrote.

Police believe Ewing entered the turnpike in Kittery and traveled in the wrong direction going northbound in the southbound lane.

Advertisement

Stone’s tractor-trailer truck, which was hauling bottled water, was traveling southbound. He took evasive action when he spotted Ewing, but couldn’t avoid the collision, Moss wrote.

Ewing’s vehicle struck the side of the tractor-trailer truck, ruptured the fuel tank and caused diesel fuel to spill out onto the roadway, according to Moss.

Police closed the roadway to one lane for hours while they investigated, enabling crews to remove the vehicles.

Assisting were the Maine State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit, Kittery Fire Department, Kittery Police Department, York Police and Fire departments and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Comments are not available on this story.

filed under: