Litchfield man killed in traffic accident

LITCHFIELD – A Litchfield man with a suspended driver’s license was killed early Sunday when his car went off a road following a high-speed police chase from Augusta.

Norman Sherman, 55, had his license suspended in November 2000 for being a habitual offender, according to Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Maine State Police Trooper Mark Damren said Augusta police noticed a 1998 red Corvette driving erratically in a mall parking lot near the Maine Turnpike around 1 a.m. and determined that the owner of the car had a suspended driver’s license.

Police stopped the car in the southbound lanes of the Maine Turnpike, but Sherman then drove away at a high rate of speed, Damren said. Augusta police followed, but broke off the chase when speeds exceeded 100 mph.

A few minutes later, a Gardiner Police Department officer spotted the car on Route 126 in Gardiner, just off the turnpike exit. He chased the Corvette, but he also stopped when speeds got too high, Damren said.

When the Gardiner officer continued driving on Route 126 into Litchfield, he discovered that the car had driven off the road and down an embankment. Sherman had been thrown from the car and was dead at the scene.

“Excessive speed was a definite factor,” Damren said.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.