8 cars damaged in store parking lot accident

ELLSWORTH — Two people received minor injuries Thursday after they were involved in what looked like an eight-car demolition derby that took several police officers hours to sort out.

Several drivers who had left their cars parked in the lot of the Shop ‘n Save on High Street while they shopped had an unhappy surprise when they came out of the store.

According to Ellsworth Police Officer Gilbert Jameson II, Elaine Carney, 72, of Southwest Harbor, driving a Mercury Topaz owned by Rudolph Richardson, 83, of Bar Harbor, a passenger in the car, apparently parked the car in the parking lot at the food store and then decided to change parking spaces. When she began to make the change, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and passed through the adjacent parking space between two cars. Both vehicles received minor damage.

Carney’s vehicle continued across the parking lot and struck a parked Volvo. The momentum pushed the Volvo into a parked Honda. Carney’s vehicle continued to push the Honda and Volvo across the parking lot, striking a Renault and then going down an embankment. The three cars crashed into two other cars in the Holiday Inn parking lot before coming to a stop.

Carney and Richardson were taken to Maine Coast Memorial Hospital where they were treated and then released. Jameson said officers were continuing the investigation.