Hampden woman dies in pickup truck-car crash

HERMON – A Hampden woman died after the car she was driving collided with a pickup truck near the intersection of Bog and Newburgh roads Monday afternoon.

Priscilla Burke, 69, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics from the Bangor Fire Department, according to an investigator. The other driver, Gregory Chamberlain, 33, also of Hampden, was not injured.

At 6:45 p.m., nearly two hours after the accident was first called in, Bangor firefighters used hydraulic equipment and began the difficult job of extricating the body from the car, which had been heavily damaged on the driver’s side.

A blue tarp covered most of the top of the car that had come to rest at the bottom of a small embankment in a yard across from the intersection.

Chamberlain’s pickup truck was leaning partway into the embankment on the other side of the driveway.

As firefighters and other rescue personnel carved away pieces of the car, accident reconstructionists from the Bangor Police Department continued the process begun by investigators of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.

With specialty surveying equipment that uses laser lights and mirrors rather than tape measures, accident reconstruction experts Detective Mark Hathaway and Officer Steve Jordan pinpointed evidence and other elements on the scene from scuffs and skid marks to reference points along the roadway. From pinpointing the angle, elevation and distance of each, police can develop a map that will help them determine what happened.

Investigators already had some idea of what happened, with Detective Bill Flagg saying that evidence at the scene suggested that Burke’s car had entered into the pickup truck’s path for some reason. Burke was turning onto the Newburgh Road when she was struck by Chamberlain’s pickup truck, which was headed northwest.

Authorities said that as with any fatal motor vehicle accident, investigators are looking at everything right now, including whether speeding or alcohol was involved.

“Everything is under investigation at this point,” said Sgt. John Skroski of the sheriff’s department.