GLENBURN – Four people were injured early Monday evening when a Newport woman’s sport utility vehicle rear-ended a van carrying a family of four on Route 15 near the Bangor city line.

All four of the injured – Corinne Leary, 46, of Newport, Cynthia Cadwell, 41, of Glenburn and her daughters Teri-Lynn, 10, and Tara, 14 – were taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center, where they were still being evaluated late Monday night.

Both Leary and Cynthia Cadwell were being treated for serious, but not life-threatening, injuries, reported Sgt. Troy Morton of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.

Driver inattention is being blamed for the accident, which occurred about 6:18 p.m. in heavy traffic.

Timothy Cadwell, 41, and his family were heading south on Route 15 about one-tenth of a mile from the Bangor city line and had slowed to make a left turn, Morton said.

Leary was two vehicles behind the Cadwell van and was reaching to put her cellular phone down when the vehicle in front of her passed the van on the right. Distracted, Leary didn’t see the van in time, Morton said. Her 1994 Nissan Pathfinder struck the van in the rear, sending it across the road. It missed oncoming traffic before it came to rest down an embankment.

Leary wasn’t wearing a seat belt at the time and Morton said she suffered injuries to her chest.

Tara Cadwell was seated in the rearmost seat of the van – near where the impact occurred – and suffered back injuries, Morton said. Her sister suffered knee injuries, and their mother was being treated for head and neck injuries. Her father wasn’t injured. Morton reported that everyone in the van was wearing a seat belt.

Glenburn firefighters blocked off a section of Route 15, stopping or turning away traffic to allow Morton and Deputies Tom Burgess and James Kennedy to reconstruct the accident.

In light of this and other accidents, Morton said he is stressing that people use seat belts and don’t use cellular phones while in motor vehicles.