Tractor-trailer hits car > Aroostook County incident ends with no injuries

HAMLIN – Quick maneuvering by a tractor-trailer driver averted a serious, potentially deadly situation early Tuesday afternoon on Route 1A at the Grand Falls Road intersection.

According to police reports, a car pulled out in front of a northbound tractor-trailer. While the tractor-trailer operator attempted to avoid the car, the driver of the car attempted to turn off the road, again directly into the path of the truck.

“This could have been a fatal accident,” Deputy Sheriff Steve Belanger said.

“Boy, what a driver,” Belanger quoted the operator of the car as saying about actions of the truck driver.

Belanger said Ulysses St. Pierre, 53, of Caswell, the driver of a 1981 Renault car, said he did not see the truck. St. Pierre, police said, tested negative for alcohol consumption.

Maurice Morrell, 35, of Kedgewick, New Brunswick, was driving his empty Peterbilt truck north on Route 1A when St. Pierre pulled out of the Grand Falls Road in front of him.

Morrell pulled left into the southbound passing lane to avoid St. Pierre’s car. At the same time, St. Pierre decided to turn into Parent’s Store, located at the intersection.

Morrell pulled his truck back right, attempting to again avoid St. Pierre’s car. He clipped the back end of the car, causing about $1,000 damage to it. Morrell then jackknifed his rig to bring it to a stop.

The truck rolled, damaging a fuel tank and spilling fuel onto the road and gravel along the road. The Department of Environmental Protection was called in. Belanger said some contaminated soil would be removed from the site Wednesday.

The truck received an estimated $45,000 in damage, Belanger said.

The Van Buren Fire Department cleaned up the fuel spilled onto the roadway. At first, people thought there was personal injury involved, and the Van Buren Ambulance Service was also at the scene.

There were no injuries in the incident.