TOPSFIELD – A 46-year-old Westbrook woman was injured Tuesday when her hand became lodged between the tire of a 26,000-pound street sweeper and a wheel chock.

Around 11:20 a.m., Jessee O’Rourke was driving a street sweeper owned by Wilson’s Commercial Sweeping of Westbrook and was cleaning the northbound breakdown lane on U.S. Route 1 in Topsfield.

O’Rourke apparently rode over a rock or a large piece of wood that the sweeper couldn’t sweep up, said Maine State Police Trooper Micah Perkins.

She stopped the vehicle on a hill in an attempt to dislodge the debris and put the vehicle in park with the engine running. “With a vehicle that size, that was not enough,” he said.

O’Rourke was unable to set the emergency parking brake because it was disabled, Perkins said. The trooper said the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle.

With one foot on the brake, O’Rourke attempted to lean out of the machine while keeping her left foot on the brake. With her right hand she attempted to throw a chock down in front of the front right wheel. “In doing so, she overextended herself and, as she dropped the chock, the vehicle lurched forward, sending her out of the vehicle and pinning her left hand between the wheel and the chock, dragging her five feet down the road,” Perkins said.

The vehicle eventually came to a stop. O’Rourke was taken to Calais Regional Hospital with injuries to her hand and chest. She was being treated in the emergency room Tuesday afternoon and was listed in good condition.

Perkins said Wilson’s Commercial Sweeping was summoned for having inadequate brakes. O’Rourke was not charged. Perkins said the accident was reported to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Assisting Perkins at the scene was Trooper Chuck Matthews of the state police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit, state police Motor Carrier Inspector Donald Arey, Downeast EMS, the Topsfield Fire Department and employees of the Maine Department of Transportation’s Topsfield office.